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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The EngUah Society of Frleitda of RumIhii Freedom, founiJnd In April, i8yn, hai for it abjarli In aid, In 
the extent of its powera, the Kuniiian patiiota who are tryliiK to olitalti for llioir country tliat I'olllli'al 
Freodom and Scl(-f;overiitnent which WDHteni imtlona Imvo otiliiynd fur Ktiiinralliiiia. 

The Society appeali to the enlif^bteiioil oivn uid wanimi of all cuuiitrlna. wlllioitl illitlnollon of nallniialll)' 
or political creed, who cannut wIttioHa with liidlfTernTice tho horrnra |inr|intralfld hi thA Kinpirn nflha'l'anra, 
and who wish a better future for tho iiiaaaoa of (lie Kuailan people. Further ciniilrlliiitlona to the fiiiida ami 
further work are needed and will ha welcome. Mouiherahlp ia aciiiilred liy antuliiiR to tho Treaaurnr ati niiiiiiiil 
suhscrlplion of or exceeding Five ShllllnKi, Memlwra no entitled to receive Fnt tiuiiiit pnal finn, 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FKIKNDS OF KUSHIAN FKKKDOM, 
Thoae markad with an ■, form iho lUacullva Commluea. 

l)t.Hoii.A.H.OyktAolafld,H.P, Rav. Paia Hoppi. *edwRrd R. Paait, 

Rev. Oharlea A. Bafpy, " ' — 

Rav. Stopford A. Breoka. 

Perey W. Buntlna. 

Thomaa Burt, M.P. 
•W. P. Bytaa, MP. 

The CountBM of Cartlalt. 

Rav. W. Moora Eda. 

J. E. Ellla, M.P. 

Mlaa laabella 0. Ford. 
•L T. Hobhoua*. 



R. A, Hudwn. 

■Mra. Edwin Human. *J. Allanaon PlotOA, M.P, 

Rl.Han.J.Q.BhRw-Lahvra,M.P Mra. Hirbart Rli. 

- 'Harbart Rlx. 

H. Robert!. 
Joihui RowntPM. 
Wm, BiundBrt, LC.O,, M.P, 
•Adolpha Smith. 
'Oao. Standpln|. 
Hanry 0. Btiphina, M.P. 



■E.il. C. Morton, M P. 
J. Flatohar Moullan, 0.0. 
•Mpi. Edward R, Patat. 



Hanry i. WIUo^ M.P. 

*Rob«rt Spanea Wation, LLD., t/on. tVtaturtr, Benaham (}rova. flaiaahaad. 

• Willtllffl W. Mackaniia, Hon. Sigrtlaiy, 1^, KadcUi:* nirdana, Boulh Kaoalnfflon, ijmAnn, H.W. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



jsooxEJS ix.rjz> z* A. xa z> ^ Xa XI TT s 

(In English, Eatsian, and (4fur languaga) 
Prohibited in Russia, can be obtained flram the 

Office of the RUSSIAN FREE PRESS FUND. 



Apply (either personally or by letter) to 

W. H. VOYNICH (J. Keloheisky), 3, IFFLEY ROAD, HAHHERSHITH, W. 

Office hours : 9 to 1, daily. Catalogut, post fret, Id. 



The Fund also issues pamphlets in Russian ; the three first (" What is Wanted," 2d., 
and "The Agitation Abroad," 2d., by S. Stepniak, and "A Jew to Jews," 4d., by E. Khazin) 
have already appeared. 



Bound Volnmea of " FREE RUSSIA." 

Cloth boards. 
Price, complete with ist No., £1 post free; 

without ist No., 2S. 6d., post free. 
Apply at the Office of the Russian Free Press 

Fund. For particulars see above. 

Pamphlets and Photographs published by the Society: 

I. ThB SUnghler of Political Priaonen in Siberia. 

Frice id.; poitfree, ild. 
1. The Flogging of Political Exilei in Rnula. Price 

id. : post free, Id. (znd edition in prepamtion.) 



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S.F.R.F. 

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A Jouroer under Arrest. Price 3d. i post free, 3^. — 
(4lh (bousand In preparalion.) 

Are RussiaD Internal Affairs any Concern of Oars 7 
by H. U. Thompson ; with a preface by Dr. R, 
Speoce Watson. Price, 3d.: post free, 3|d. 

be had ol J. C. Fonlger, or the 



All the above o 
Secretary of the S. 



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SCIENCE AHD AKT APPARATUS AND DIAGRAMS 

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November i, 1892. FREE 

CONTENTS. ' 



Finland. — Vysluugradtky'i Prophetic Vision. — 
T/u Foreign Office Raport upon Russian Agricuitun, 
II. (by S. SUpniak).— Notes and Maiingi.—Tkt 
History of Russian Liberalism, II. (Tourgenev and 
Herten. — Patriotic Ttmidily, — A Vindication of 
Autocracy. — Tke Peregriii-iiions of a Disciple of 
Tolstoi, — A New Light on the Cholera Riots, — 
Letter to the Editor. 

All MSS., Letters to the Editor, Advertisements, 
S^.,shouId be addressed to the Editor, Free Russia, 
3, I0ey Road, Hatumersmitk, London. 

Advertisements received up to the 251k of each 
month will appear in the next issue. Advertisenunts 
in the English, American and German editions at 
reduced rates. 

CommunicaiioKS with regard to the Society of 
Friends of Russian Freedom should be addressed to 
the Honorary Secretary (Mr. W. Macieniie), 24, 
Redcliffe Gardens, South Kensington^ London, S, W. 

The Annual Meeting of the Society 
will be held on December 6th next. 
The place and hour will be duly 
announced in the daily papers. 



RECEIVED 

RUSSIA. 3 

MAY 28 

forbearance on their part they have no choice 
but to follow the example of the-PoIes. Not 

Russian opposition and in working with might 
and main to overthrow a. regime which is the 
very embodiment of oppression and tyranny in 
every relation of life. 



THE 



FIE final blow has been dealt to the 
Finnish autonomy. In Helsin^ors, an 
imperial uhax was published " reforming" the 
Finnish senate in the following manner. The 
special commission of the senate acting as the 
Finnish " executive " between the meetings of 
the Diet, is abolished. The Senate will hence- 
forward have no right to discuss any subjects 
but such as will be submitted to it by the 
Russian governor-general. Finally, the office 
of senator will no longer be the exclusive 
privil^e of bom Finns. By the very imperfect, 
essentially monarchical constitution of the 
Grand Duchy all the senators are nominated 
by the Tzar, the only guarantee of their 
faithfulness to the interests of the country being 
that they had to be all of Finnish birth. Now, 
by the September ukat, this guarantee is 
abolished, and Russians settled in Finland may 
be made senators. The significance of this 
measure needs no explanation. The Finnish 
autonomy has been destroyed dejure as well as 
de facto. The senate is transformed into S 
Mniple bureaucratic commission, appointed by 
the ministry from its own chinovuiks ; a position 
inferior to that of the Russian zemsCvos, into 
which the elective element enters to some extent, 
whilst Finland, without the slightest provocation 
on het part, will be as official-ridden as the 
rebellious, indomitable Poland. Let us hope 
that the Finns will not be slow in coming to the 
conclusion that after so much patience and 



TJC^E beg to call the attention of our readers 
'' to the letter upon the cholera riots 
which we publish in another part of our 
issue. This communication throws a new light 
upon these popular outbreaks, of which we 
have hitherto had only the official version. 
The events to which the letter refers happened 
several months ago; but the mental condition 
of the masses which it describes are the same, 
and one has rarely an opportunity to get an 
insight into the real feelings of the masses. 
The story of the peregrinations of one of Count 
Tolstoi's followers will also contribute its share, 
we hope, in showing that keen interest for 
spiritual things which characterises the modern 
Russian peasant, and accounts for the vast 
sectarian movement going on in Russia. 



"W^E hear from St. Petersburg that the career 
"" of the former Minister of Finance, Mr. 
Vyshnegradsky, closed with a scene that has 
never been witnessed at the councils of the 
Russian Tzars, The old minister, whose brain 
was put to such a severe strain by last year's 
exceptional work,and who has been much worried 
by the underhand struggle with his colleagues, 
especially with General Vanovsky, the Minister 
of War, who always stood in the way of his 
attempts at economy, — was suffering from what 
is called " mental exhaustion." At the council 
his mind suddenly gave way, when, after stormy 
debates, General Vanovsky succeeded in getting 
the best of him, and won the Tzar's approba- 
tion to a project of his, involving new and 
heavy expenses. Mr. Vyshnegradsky rose, and, 
amidst general stupefaction, began to address 
the Tzar and the council as if they were repre- 
sentatives of the Russian people in ParUameot 
assembled. Some time passed before the 
amazed audience understood what it all meant, 
and the doctors were summoned. We give the 
slory for what it is worth. 

There is wisdom in insanity, and there may 
be prophecy in mental aberration. The idea 
of a Russian Parliament has probably often 
crossed the mind of Mr. Vyshnegradsky, and, 
the fact might come to light in such an unex- 
pected way. Indeed, it seems to be forced 
more and more to the front, as the only possible 
solution of the crisis. The financial difficulties 
of the Russian government begin to assume 
such proportions as to clearly foreshadow state 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



bankruptcy. Last year's famine tells heavily 
upon the budget. The deficit is enormous. In 
Mr. Vyshnegradsky's forecasts for the current 
year it was expected to be heavy ; he reckoned 
upon 35,000,000 roubles deficit for ordinary 
receipts,with an addition of 53,500,000 for extra- 
ordinary ones, making an imposing total of 
78,500,000 roubles. But in reality the deficit was 
almost double that amount : the first six months 
gave a deficit of 89,000,000 on the two items. 
There is not a shadow of a chance that the 
receipts of the remaining half-year should fill 
the gaps left by the first half. 

Trade is in a very depressed condition, espe- 
cially the corn trade, which is the main prop 
of Russian economical life. Owing to the 
uncertainty caused bv last yen's prohibition of 
the export of corn, tnere is no demand for it 
now. According to the Odessa papers, from 
the opening of the navigation up to September 1 , 
only 1^,000,000 pouds of corn were exported, 
which IS 49,000,000 short of last year's export. 
The official Finaiicial Messenger quotes a general 
shrinking of the exports. For the first six 
months of the current year, its total value was 
166,000,000 roubles, which is one half of last 
year. 

Alarmed by these symptoms, the government 
withdraws all the prohibitive measures, the 
threatening dearth of crops notwithstanding. 
But it is in vain. The traders have been scared 
away, and do not come. The freight prices are 
rising rapidly. A short time ago fireight from 
Odessa to London stood at 6 to 7 shillings a ton. 
Now it is 13 shillings, and there are no ships 
to be had even at so high a price. They have 
been sent by their owners to other parts 
offering greater security. This means the 
development of foreign corn trade at the 
expense of Russian. 

In the interior the agricultural prospects are 
growing gloomier witn every month. The 
autumn drought has destroyed crops in the 
enormous plain stretching from the province of 
Tambov down to the Caucasian mountains, and 
from the river Oka to the lower Volga. Many 
provinces, — the northern Caucasus, a con- 
siderable part of the province of Saratov and 
almost the whole of the province of Voronezh, — 
present an uninterrupted dry desert over which 
clouds of dust are driven by the wind. The 
same drought has had a very disastrous effect 
in the provinces of Kherson, Kiev, Podol and 
Bessarabia. From all sides comes the same 
dreary account of misery, so often repeated 
that it sounds like the monotonous refram of a 
funereal song. 

Petitions for relief are pouring in upon the 
ministry just as they did last year, and the 
imperial telieffund is exhausted. Where is 
money to come from ? How are both ends of the 
budget to be made to meet ? The subsidies, 
it must be remembered count double to a 



budget, like the seats won or lost at the 
elections. A province or district which needs 
relief at once absorbs the money of the state 
and keeps back the taxes due. 

Of the many plans for raising funds the 
expedient of issuing paper money has found 
most favour with the present government ; six 
issues have been ordered since last year. This 
is undoubtedly an easy way, but a dangerous 
one too, which cannot be resorted to in- 
definitely. With the 300,000,000 roubles 
interest on foreign loans to be paid in gold, 
the depreciation of paper money falls heavily 
upon the exchequer of the state, as it does upon 
the general industry of the country. 

The only expedient left is trying foreign 
loans. But in the present condition of Russian 
finances and agriculture, foreign bankers will 
not advance money to Russia. This is the 
all-important fact which the last week has 
brought to light. A new loan has been ne- 
gotiated in Paris. It was a desperate attempt 
afrer the ignominious failure of the last loan 
of ^30,000.000, and we are informed by the 
Daily News that it had dejinittly failed. "The 
new loan," says the paper, " was to be at 
4 per cent., and Mr, Witte, the Russian Finance 
Minister, offered it to the French syndicate at 
the rate of 96. In the course of negotiations 
M. Witte went down to 90, but even this con- 
cession was in vain. It is expected that under 
these circumstances the Russian government 
will resume its almost hopeless efforts to obtain 
the money in Germany." Certainly such efforts 
will be hopeless. 

But why will not the governmenttry England? 
Provided the vi'^ion of Mr. Vyshnegradsky be 
prophetic, the Russian government could obtain 
anywhere as many millions as may be wanted, 
for nobody can doubt the resources of Russia, 
S. Stepniak. 



Foreign Office Report on 
Russian Agriculture and 
the Failure of the Harvest 
1891. 



m 



IV.— rA< PoliiioA System. 
rpHE true, fundamental causes of the bad 
-'- conditions of Russian agriculture lie not 
in communal land tenure, but in the social and 
political system, which is based upon the 
pitiless and reckless exhaustion of the farmers. 
Mr. Law's report presents a faithful picture 
of this monstrous system, of which the tax- 
collector and the publican- usurer are the two 
integral parts. We need not dwell upon the 
familiar details. But we cannot pass over 



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November i, 1S92. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



some very suggestive remarks of Mr. Law's, 
which go far to refute some of the inveterate 
popular prejudices. On page 18 we find an 
interesting comparison between Russian and 
Jewish usurers. After surveying the ruinous 
eiTecc of usury in Russia proper, Mr. Law 
remarks : " In the western provinces of the 
Jewish Pale the Jew usually takes the place of 
the Russian kouldk (usurer), both as a spirit 
dealer and as a money-lender, and much of his 
unpopularity among his Russian neighbours 
may be attributed to this fact. It is, however, 
curious that in the Jewish provinces the rate 
of interest for small loans U far lower than in 
the rest of the empire. The Jewish population, 
though as a whole very poor, includes more 
small capitalists among its number than are 
to be found among the Russians, and their 
competition among themselves, for the profit 
of money-lending, effectually keeps down the 
rale of interest." 

Thi» is the best rejoinder to the ai^uments 
which the Russian government is used to bring 
forward to screen the real causes of the Jewish 
persecutions — racial and religious bigotry and 
the greed of the officials. 

We note also with pleasure on the same 
page another remark tending to exculpate the 
Russian peasant from an often repeated charge 
of general drunkenness. Mr. Law explains 
how, owing to the bad arrangement of the liquor 
traffic, the article sold is of the most fiery and 
poisonous description ; the result being that a 
small quantity produces intoxication. " This," 
he says, " helps Eo create the entirely erroneous 
impression that the ordinary Russian peasant 
is a heavy drinker. As a matter of fact 
statistics show that the consumption of spirits 
per head of population is not large in any part 
of Russia, and it is smallest in those very pro- 
vinces of the black soil, where the people have 
the worst reputation for drunkenness. In 
Penza, Tambov and Saratov, three govern- 
ments of the black soil, the consumption of 
spirits is from 0-57 to 0-59 gallon per head. 
In the governments of Vladimir and Tver, 
where there is a considerable development of 
manufacturing industiY, the consumption is 
from 0-65 to 078 gallon per head. In the 
Baltic provinces, which have a comparative 
reputatKHi for sobriety, the consumption is from 
070 (o 078 gallon per head, and in some of the 
western provinces it reaches 0-99 gallon." 
\.—The Story of the Famine. 

Mr. Law's description of the character and 
dimensions of last gear's famine is the best we 
kno.}* of. It is entirely devoid of anything sen- 
sational. Not a single harrowing description, 
it is all figures. But figures are sometimes 
more eloauent than the most graphic illustra- 
tions, and certainly much more characteristic of 
the general condition of the country. 



The failure of crops in the 16 black soil 
provinces resuUed.as the reader may remember, 
m a deficit of food for the enormous number of 
35,000,00a people, the quantity of bread stuffs 
produced being full 175,000,000 short pouds* of 
the minimum required. The problem whichthe 
government and the country had to face, was 
to find means to feed this huge mass of people. 
And the important thing is that this problem 
was somehow solved. The government 
assigned for the relief 120,667,000 roubles, or 
about /i 2,000,000, which at the minimum rate 
of 12 ponds per annum, or r^lb. a day, was suffi- 
cient to feed only 7,500,000 people. Thus 
23,000,000 of the needy inhabitants were left 
unprovided for. 

How did these 23,000,000 hungry people pull 
through the winter ? The fact is that they 
were fed somehow, for although there was 
much sickness and death from insufficient food, 
cases of actual starvation were rare and quit* isolated. 

It is admitted that there must have been in 
the famine stricken provinces a reserve fund of 
corn preserved from former years. The highest 
possible estimate of this reserve stock is 
51,000,000/oui/i, sufficient to feed the 3,000, 000 of 
urban population, and another 10,000,000 of 
destitute peasants. This leaves a deficit of 
13,000,000 people unprovided for. Of these 
public charity had to take charge. The 
Tzarevich's fund gave ^^i, 250,000, the United 
States a targe donation in kind and in money 
amounting to ^60,000, and England, up to 
July r,j^^o,ooo. Allowing the total of the minor 
contributions to be equal to these two put 
together, we have the result that public 
beneficence supplied 2,000,000 needy peasants 
withfoodlorthewintermonths. Full 11,000,000 
people remain unprovided for. Private unre- 
corded beneficence could alone meet the 
necessity of these sufferers. But private charity 
had more to do than that. 

The 51,000,000 pouds of reserve stock kept 
over from past years by landowners and rich 

Sieasants could be converted from a potential 
bod into an actual food for the needy, partly 
by private beneficence also, and partly by 
the efforts of the needy peasants themselves 
who pledged their future work, and prospects 
to get relief for the acute distress of the 
terrible winter. Then the former calculations 
are made with the assumption that there 
was no useless waste, no defect in the arrange- 
ment of the relief; that every grain of corn, 
every penny reached its destination. This was 
not the fact, as everybody knows. A con- 
siderable reduction has to be made in the 
nntnber of persons supplied from all the above 
mentioned official channels, and this deficit had 
once again to be put, to a great extent, to the 
charge of private beneficence. 



in pevi ii equal lo aboiil }6.1 lb*. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



Now, private beaeficence could not accom- 
plish all this. And the explaaatioQ why 
hunger has not swept away millions of people 
instead of isolated hundreds, can be but one : 
the peasants who received from any source 
whatever the normal rate of relief, the poor 
one and one-third lb. a day, did not consume 
it all, but shared that modest allowance with 
two, or perhaps more, of their suffering 
brethren. 

This is the conclusion at which Mr. Law 
arrives and which has been expressed by all 
who have come into contact with the people 
during the late terrible ordeal. 

Last year's famine will remain, as Mr. Law 
aays, a testimony, both to the devotion and 
humanitarian spirit of the Russian educated 
classes, and to the endurance and charity of 
the peasantry. At the same time it is quite 
evident that theamount of the above-mentioned 
pledging of the people's future work and 
prospects must have been very considerable 
and very detrimental indeed. 

Vh—Thi Protfucts of tlu Future. 

But what IS the outcome ol so much etlort, 
sacrifice and suffering? What are the prospects 
of next year and the year to come ? This is 
tfu question, the answer to which most of the 
English will want to hear from such a witness 
as Mr. Law. And they will find a reply which 
is as explicit as it is reliable. 

The economic prospects of Russia are, 
according to him, very gloomy. He mentions 
the fact of the reduction in the area of land 
sown, the deficiency of seed, which fell short 
by 25 per cent, as compared with the average 
(p. 26). He proves Dy figures Ihe terrible 
destruction of horses and cattle, and the 
disastrous effect of this upon agriculture. As 
to the prospects of next harvest, on the strength 
of the last statistical returns, he points out that 
in five provinces which suffered last year and 
are now once more stricken with failure of the 
chief crops it will certainly be very hard next 
winter, and in five others the suffering will be 
only a degree less. This means another 
famine. 

We give neither the list of these provinces 
nor the figures, because the reader will find 
both in our last issue and previous ones. 

We will conclude this ton^ summing up of a 
very tvief work by expressing a hope to see 
some day from the same pen a more extensive 
work upon Russian agricnltural conditions. 
We do not expect to agree with all the author's 
opinions, but we are sure that such a work 
from an impartial Englishman is greatly needed 
just now, Mr. Mackenzie Wallace's excellent 
study being already out of date. 

S. Stbpniak. 



TAe History of Russian 
Liberalism. 



IXIH 



XL — Albxandbr Hbr^bn and Tourgbkbv. 
The Liberal Revival op 1855-63. 

IHE Liberal revival which followed the 
collapse of the mihtary r^ime of Nicholas 
L after the disastrous Crimean war, is one of 
the most interesting periods in modern Russian 
history. Its study is of peculiar importance 
just at the present time, which presents the 
spectacle of the collapse of another system, 
brought about this time by internal causes. A 
most valuable contribution to the better know- 
ledge of this not very distant but little studied 
epoch has been made by the publication of the 
correspondence of Tourgenev, and some other 
less renowned members of the liberal party, 
with Alexander Herzen, the great Russian 
writer and exile, whose name is still remem- 
bered by the elder generation of English poli- 
ticians, as that of the editor of the famous 
" KoloM," {the Bell), the first Russian liberal 
paper, which was published in London in 
i«55-64- 

This correspondence, although of a private 
and confidential nature, is devoted entirely to 
politics, and it gives us a faithful picture of the 
political aspirarions and various currents of 
political thought then existing among the 
more advanced of the Russian educated class. 
Professor Dragomanov, whose name is familiar 
to the readers of Free Russia, has rendered a 
good service to the Russian cause by publish- 
ing and editing this important correspondence. 
The little volume is of an absorbing, almost 
painful interest for modern Russian readers, 
as it shows how slow has been our boasted 
progress for the last twenty years. The ques> 
tions which occupied the men of that time are 
but a slight modification of those which are 
discussed nowadays, and the blunders and 
errors of judgment which were committed then 
are the same against which we have to take 
precautions now. But the errors of our prede* 
cessors were grosser and more evident, and are 
useful as a warning to the people of our day. 

Alexander Herzen is the central figure 
around which the rest are gathered, — some of 
them inclining to one extreme, some to the other. 

We are introduced in the opening of the 
book to a typical representative of official 
liberalism, a man of remarkable dialectical 
power and forcible logic, whose motto is : 
everything by the government and through the 
government, society and the press being viewed 
only as possible assistants to the wiseacre 
whose function is to think and act for the good 
of the nation. 

This is a certain Ch in whom it is easy 

to recc^ise a well-known figure in the Russian 
municipal administrationi 



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November i, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



KavdiD follows suit to Ch as a repre- 
sentative of the timid, half-hearted liberalism, 
which, from an utterly unfounded apprehension 
that in Russia a constitution might turn to the 
advantage of the educated class, preferred to 
postpone it. maintaining in power " for a time," 
the existing bureaucracy. Of course this ten- 
dency could result in nothing but the mainten- 
ance of the autocracy as it is. 

Alexander Herzen's views are a study in 
themselves. With all his broad European 
education, remarkable perspicacity and strong 
good sense, be could not avoid some of the 
follacies characteristic of the old Slavophil as 
well as of a certain section of modern revolution- 
ists, who postpone freedum for the sake of 
democratic reforms, forgetting that there 
is no highway to democracy except through 
freedom. 

We will not dwell upon the description of 
the interior evolution and struggles of these 
parlies, for this would tell but little to our 
English friends. We will pass on to the most 
important part of the book — the letters of Tour- 
genev, whose name and position give to these 
documents a peculiar interest, both political 
and biographical. 

The great novelist appears to us here for the 
first time as a politician, and one of unusual 
perspicacity. In the confusion of tongues of 
that stormy epoch, his voice alone sounds like 
that of the wisdom of age. His faith in the 
Russian people was as great as that of his 
friend Herzen, and his democratic sympathies 
were as sincere. But he was equally distant 
from Herzen's Slavophil aberrations as from 
the bureaucratic superstitions of his opponents. 
He stands out as a firm, far-sighted upholder 
of the pure Europein idea of political freedom 
and of European forms of political life. 

In hia letter to Herzen, of November 8, 
1862, he writes: "Though an enemy of mysti- 
cism, you bow down with mystical reverence 
before the mruxhik's sheepskin, hoping that 
from ita folds some new, unheard of form 
of political life will fall upon the won- 
dering world. You have overthrown all the 
traditional idols ; you do not believe in any. 
But is impossible to live without worshipping 
something, and you have built up a new temple 
to this " unknown god," that you may once 
more be able to pray, believe and wait. History, 
philosophy, statistics, do not count for you. 
You close your eyes to the irrefutable fact that 
we Russians belong, by language and race, to 
the European family, 'genus Europaeum,' and 
consequently must, by the immutable laws of 
social physiology, pass through the same 
phases of development, I never beard of a 
duck which could breathe with gills as a fish. 
But because you are morally exhausted, 
because you want to put upon your thirstv 
tongue a Aop of f^esh water, you fall back 



upon the possibility of such a miracle, and you 
strike out at all tliat must be dear to every 
European, and consequently to you : at civi- 
lisation, lawfulness, and the revolution itself." 

Tourgenev hated the shallow, slavopli 
antithesis between the " West," beautiful from 
the outside, and rotten within, and the " East," 
which is ugly without, but beautiful within 
(let. XLV. 9). He rightly saw in this tall talk 
the germs of stagnation and quietism. For 
him the solution of Russia's difficulties lay in the 
introduction of Western political forms. And 
he proclaimed what twenty years of schooling 
has taught us, that " the only (we may now 
say the chief) support for a livyig, real revolu- 
tionary movement in Russia, is to be found in 
the educated minority." 

With the strong political good sense manifested 
throughout all his correspondence, and with his 
warm political sympathies, the great Russian 
novehst had in him the potentiality of a con- 
spicuous political writer. At one time he 
contemplated entering upon a political career. 
But his natural timiditystood as an insuperable 
obstacle to it. He remained a sympathiser 
and confidential assistant of Herzen. He was 
a regular contributor to the Beil, its thoughtful 
counsellor — almost an unofficial member of the 
editorial staff. In one letter he advises that the 
paper should deal gently with the Grand Duke 
Constantine, because " he is fighting as a lion 
against the party of serfdom, and would feel 
keenly any unkind word from you." (Letter to 
Herzen, Jan. i, 1861). Another time he 
recommends a more moderate tone with regard 
to Alexander II. (Jan. 7, 1858). 

In both cases Herzen follows the advice. 
And when, in September i860, Alexander II. 
lent his ear to the reactionary party and struck 
alliance with the Emperor of Austria, it was 
by Tourgenev's advice that Herzen attacked 
him in a virulent article. 

Tourgenev kept the Btll well informed upon 
all important facts that came under his notice, 
and his letters contain a number of striking 
illustrations of the unique power which 
Herzen's organ acquired at one time in Russia. 
In the letter of Jan. 7, I858, we find a curious 
anecdote about some Moscow actors, who, being 
wronged by the administration in money 
matters, sent in a deputation to Gideonov, with 
whom rested the decision. But Gideonov would 
not hear of it. " Then," said the deputation, 
" we shall be obliged to complain to the 
minister." •* You won't get much by that," 
answered Gideonov. " In that case," said the 
deputation, we have no choice but to complain 
to the Kolokol (The Bell). Gideonov fiew into a 
passion, but finished by yielding to the demands 
of the actors. Still more abundant are the 
proofs of the attention which Herzen's paper 
commanded at the Court of St. Petersburg. It 
was read by the Tzar and by the Grand Dukes; 



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8 



FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



the courtiers of the Emperor came to pay 
court to the great exile. But this attention and 
influence were not lasting, being based upon 
the short-lived liberal tendencies of Alexander 
II. The official world followed its master's 
example, thus creating the fictitious impression 
of power, which vanished as a dream when the 
Tzar turned his back upon liberalism. And 
at the same time the tempting prospects of 
directly influencing, those in power, made the 
paper sometimes forget the real sources of 
its strength. 

We look with greater hopefulness upon our 
own time, when, liberal ideas spring from the 
soil in theteeth of all the government's efforts 
to suppress them. Of this we shall speak in 
our next issue. 



Notes. 

THE Australian mdls carry news very slowly — 
not less than three months are necessary for an 
exchange of letters ; yet if the news be good we may 
forgive Ihe slowness of its arrival. And the news 
that has recently reached us from New South Wales 
is undoubtedly good. Our readers may remember 
that Mr. Volkhovsky was commissioned by our 
Executive Committee to correspond with a gentle- 
man of Polish extraction, V. Charlinsky, now civil 
engineer in Sydney, upon his scheme for carrying on 
our propaganda there. Mr. Charlinsky has now 
repUed in a long and cordial tetter, promising to do 
everything in his power to promote the cause of 
Russian Freedom in Australia. 

Referring to the altitude which ought to be, and, 
in fact, is taken by the Poles towards the Russian 
struggle for liberty and self-^ovemment, Mr. Char- 
linsky quite rightly says that it is in the interest of 
tyranny to keep alive the animosity between the 
" conquered " and the " contjuerors," each of which 
classes forms a danger to its existence ; and then 
proceeds as follows : — " The fact is that the two 
nations (Poles and Russians) do not know each other, 
as the only information about Poles and Polish 
affairs i^ich reaches Russian ears (or rather the 
ears of the general mass) ia that circulated by the 
government or its tools; while the Poles, in the 
absence of a free Russian press, can judge of Russian 
opinions on the Polish question only from Ihe 
utterances of the Souvorins, Katkovs, Aksfikovs, 
Galitzyns, or Meshch6rskys. and therefore expect no 
more justice from a Russian people's parliament 
than from Pobyedonostsiv's, Deiydnov's, or Apoukh- 
tin's. With rare exceptions, the opinion prevalent 
in Poland is that it is not the business of the Poles 
to concern themselves with what they believe to be 
an entirely and exclusively Russian question. Of 
course Polish socialists think diiferently," but not 
all the Poles aie socialists. Our friend has his own 
view upon the relations which should prevail 
between the general mass of Poles and Russians. 
" I love Russia and its people," he says, " although 
I consider myself as thorough a Pole as a Pole can 
bej and to me it is clear that the day of Polish 
freedom will not dawn before the sun rises over 
nations free from Kamchatka to Lisbon." Would 
that these views and feelings might spread widdy 
among Polish nationaUsts ! 



George Kennan's book (" Siberia and the Exile 
System ") is bein^ " simply devoured " in Sydney, 
says our Australian friend, " There is only one 
copy in the School of Arts, and I know people," he 
adds, " who put their names down eight months aL'o 
to get it, but fiave not had it yet," The book is sold 
at six guineas a copy (!) Mr. Charlinsky expects to 
tind a good agent for the sale of our Uterature in the 
person of one of the best booksellers in Sydney, and 
he is certain to enlist a good many people in the 
ranks of the friends of Russian Freedom, and obtain 
a number of subscriptions to the Society's funds. 
We have been fortunate enough to acquire a pro- 
moter of the cause of Russian Freedom even so far 
off as Tasmania. A lady from there, Mrs. E. Ursula 
Holdeo, bein^ on a short visit to London, became 
acquainted with the aims and work of our Society, 
and is already busy collecting subscriptions for it. 
In a few weeks she will return to Tasmania, and Is 
most earnestly determined to appeal to her fellow. 
citizens, in the name of international brotherhood, 
for help to the Russian cause. 

All this is most encouraging. While Free Russia 
ia pubhahed in three different editions— in London, 
New Vork and (in German) tn Ziiricb — and read in 
the United Slates, in Canada, in New Zealand, in 
the Transvaal and throughout Europe, the literary 
and editorial work for all the three editions is done 
in London and, consei^uently, the expenses implied 
by it are home exclusively by the mother society of 
Friends of Russian Freedom. Besides, considering 
prop^anda the main object of the society, its 
committee 6xed the price of the periodical very low, 
which means that its price does not cover half of its 
expenses. It is, therefore, only fair to expect that 
the members of the American and Colonial F.R.F. 
should share in the expenses of the mother society, 
not only by means of subficriblng to the paper 
(13. 6d. in England, li in America yearly), but also 
by becoming mtmbtrs of the English society (yearly 
membership fecnot less than 5s.), orsending in special 
donations to the general fund. All money to he 
addressed to Dr. Spence Watsju, Bensham Grove, 
Gateshead, England. 

On September 24th, ajth, zGth, and Z7th F. Volk- 
hovsky lectured respectively in Moston, Manchester 
(for the Ancoafs Brotherhood), Northwich, and the 
Whitworth Institute in Darley Dale, on his ex' 
periences in Russian prisons and exile life in Siberia 
and his escape to freedom. At all these lectures 
(which were very well attended, so that in Ancoats, 
for example, some peoplewent away without obtaining 
admission for lack of room) a sale of our cheap 
literature was carried on, which brought in to the 
funds of the Society in all £z 2s. 3d. During 
November Volkhovsky will lecture oo the same sub- 
jects : On the 8th, in Birmingham ; on the 10th, m 
Bexley Heath, near London ; on the 14th, for the 
Tyneside Lecture Society, in Newcastle-on-Tyne ; 
the next day in Hawick ; and on the zist, for the 
Birmingham and Midland Institute. 



Lecture List. 

The ladies and gentlemen whose namis appear in 
the following list have, with the approval of the 
Executive Committee, consented to lecture gratis on 
the subjects opposite their names, under the auspices 
of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 



- 'cS^e 



November i, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



Clubs, associations, societies aiid similar iostitutions, 
or ^nipathisers with Russian Freedom, desirous of 
securing the services of any of these ladies or gentle- 
men should communicate with the lecturer direct. 
J. C. Swinbubne-Manham, i8a, Gold hurst-terrace. 
South Hampstead, N.W. Subject : " The Present 
State of Russia." 
Mrs. Mallbt, Albemarle Club, Albemarle-street, 
Ficcaditly, W. (not oa Thursday or Friday). 
Single Lecture : " Russia and her People." Threa 
Lectures; "Russia and Siberia (i) Geography 
and Climate ; " (i) " Early History ; " (3) " Lale 
History." " Land System — Present Condition— 
The Mir, the Commnne." Three I-ectures : 
" Russian Martyrs ; " (i) " The Peasants ; " (a) 
"Administrative Exiles;" (3) "The Stundists." 
A Course of Nine Lectures, devoting two to the 
subject of Administrative Exiles. 
E. R. Pease, 376, Strand, W.C. Subjects: "The 
Story of Russian Nihilism." " England's Interest 
in Russian Revolution." 
G. H. Perris, 115, Fleet-street, E.C. Subjects: 
" Russia's Place in Modem Europe." " The 
Ptrsunnetoitbe Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
" The Episode of the ' Terror.' " " The Coming 
Crash ia Russia." 
Miss Ada Radford, i. South Hill Avenue, Harrow. 
Subjects : " Russian Freedom." " The Russian 
Revolution." 
H. Roberts, cafe of Free Russia, 3, IfHey-road, 
Hammersmith, W. Subjects; " The Russian 
Nihilist Movement." " The Russian Peasant and 
his Future." 
George Standrinc, 7, Finsbury- street, E.C. Sub- 
ject ; " The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
William W. Mackenzie, Hon. Sec. 



knowledge in the public schools, in regard to both 
male and female students. Miss E. Watts Phillips 
read a paper, and, after touching upon Russia's past 
history, the present reigo of cruelly and arbitrary 
rule, and expatiating upon the horrors of the exile 
system, declared that the two things Russia needed 
— umst have, and in time would have— were a free 
press and a representative or constitutional govern- 
ment- She averred that, to help the bringing of this 
about, it was the special duty of England— she 
enjoying both these blessings- to give heartfelt 
sympathy and aid to the Russian people. " Let us 
recognise," she concluded, "that Christ did not die 
for us alone, but for all the world, making us one 
vast family. A national brotherhood is great and 
holy, but there is a yet higher, nobler and holier 
still— the universal brotherhood. The oppressed 
are holding out their hands to us — the free^ Shall 
we refiise to grasp them '/ 1, for one, say ' No I ' — 
a hundred times ' No I' Remember, In the eye of 
God, tliey are those of our brothers and sisters." 
The discussion was continued by Mrs. Bell, Mrs. 
Cochrane, Mrs. Jessop, Miss Phillips, Mrs. Preedy 
and Mrs Reade. The question of P'ree Russia was 
also considered, the unanimous feeling of the meeting 
being that of heartfelt symfiatbr with hopes for the 
success of the cause which it advocates. 



Meetings, 

Executive Committee.— The October monthly 
meeting was held on the 5th ult. ; present, Dr. Spence 
Watson (in the chair), Mr. E. J. C. Morton, M.P., 
Mr. William Thompson, Mr. Rix, Mr. Pease, Mrs. 
Webb, Miss Helen Webb, M.B., and Mrs. Human; 
also Mrs. Spence Watson. A letter was read from 
the Rev. George M. S. Lester, offering to promote 
the objects of the society in Brisbane, Queensl;md. 
It was agreed to give Mr. Lester every support. 
The list of the ladies and gentlemen who had agreed 
to lecture on behalf of the society was read, and it 
was moved by Mr. Pease, seconded by Mr. Thompson, 
and carried, that the lecture list be printed in 1'reb 
Russia and marked copies sent to ciut>s and simitar 
institutions. The Treasurer reported a debit balance 
against the society. Mrs. Webb reported that a 
large number of suDscribers were in default. It was 
agreed that the Secretary be requested to send out 
a printed statement, accompanied by a short letter, 
to all subscribers of 5s. and upwards who have not 
paid their subscriptions wilbm (he year, calling 
attention to the position of affairs, asking them to 
increase their subscriptions and get additional sub- 
scribers. Other business was transacted and the 
meeting adjourned. 

DuLwicii. — The Ladies' Discussion Society, which 
meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month to 
read and discuss papers on social, political and 
literary topics, had tor its subject 00 September i8tb : 
" Russia and the Exile System." Mrs. Skey referred 
to the despotism of the administration, the auppres- 
sioD of intellect and hard restrictions placed upon 



Pa trio tic Tim idity . 

THE Figaro of September 24 contains a report 
of a curious conversation held by a French 
traveller, M. Jules Buret, with a Russian manufac- 
turer, a man who ia supremely satisfied with the 
present Ru-sian re^'tmt, which be considers admir- 
ably suited to the tastes of the Russian people 
The peasants, according to him, are " meek saive 
creatures, as ignorant as children, their minds being 
fed solely with the idea of devotion to God and the 
Czar." They are " quite used to penury and pri- 
vations, and want only a little vodka (cheap whiskey) 
to feel quite happy." The workmen oi the towns 
are in every respect like the peasants. " The men 
earn on the average only four roubles (eight shillings), 
and the women 2^ roubles (five shillings) a week. 
They work from 13 to 15 hours a day, and nobody 

Tbe government is as wise as it is paternal. Bad 
masters (those who wish to squeeze out of their men 
more than 15 hours' work a day, jiaying them less 
than five shillings a week) are held in check bj^ the 
officials. That is very humane. The workmen are 
kept in order by laws rendering participation in 
strikes punishable with imprisonment for terms not 
longer than eight months. That is very wise. " Big 
manufactories, in order to be prosperous, must be 
ruled upon a monarchical principle, and the master 
must have his hands free." As to the stability of the 
existing regime, it is beyond a doubt. 

When asked about the pos^bility of revolutionary 
ideas gaining the ear of the workiag class, this 
gentleman laughed outright, and told anecdotes 
Illustrating bis workmen's simplicity of mind. On 
tbe question being raised of tne possibility of the 
workmen wishing the hours of labour to be shortened, 
he laughed still more heartily, and forthwith related 
another anecdote showing their stupidity. No 
atauncher supporter of law and order and the Holy 
orthodox Church could be imagined. Yet,— and 
here is the point of the story, — when the French 
jounialist asked his permission lo reproduce tbeir 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



conversation in the papers, the good man was 
frightened to death. 

" Oh, please sir, do not do that, or you will 
expose me to I do not know how many unpleasant 

things We are not in France here," Thus he let 

the cat out of the bag. Like a true Russian subject, 
he thought that any expression of opinion, no matter 
of what natura, is a dangerous thing, and that the 
only safe thing for a man to do is, as Shchedrin puts 
it, to take example by the bull, upon whose innocent 
bellowing no one can put a suspicious construction. 



A utocracy Vindicated. 

T^E have received from Paris a copy of the 
vile organ of the French antisemites, 
containing an article entitled ■■ England the 
accomplice of the Nihilists," which is quite in 
keeping with the general character of the 
paper. It is a vindication of the Tzar, and 
we will quote some passages from it for the 
amusement of our readers. 

" It is no secret for anyone," says the worthy 
author, "that the usual intrigues no longer 
satisfy England's hatred of Russia. Formerly 
she contented herself with sending out arms to 
Circassian and Polish rebels. Now she openly 
supports a Prince and a gang of adventurers 
who have usurped (»c) the supreme power in 
Bulgaria." 

But England does far worse things than this. 

There have been rumours of an attempt 
against the Tzar's life at Skiernievitzy. This 
beautiful specimen of a newspaper affirms that 
the attempt was actually made, and that Eng- 
land was Its instigator, as " it is in the interest 
cf England to create disturbances in Russia. " 

"On the eve of the ist of May did not she 
(England) furnish the French anarchists with 
dynamite bombs to throw at the troops, in order 
to make the Tzar believe that our country is 
in a state of perpetual revolution ? " 

After this statement we are not surprised 
to learn that England has undertaken to 
" subsidize the Nihilist committees" which 
have their head quarters in London, and has 
founded a " Society of Friends of Russian 
Freedom," whose " avowed " object is to serve 
English interests in Asia. 

The personal abuse with which this charming 
production is interlarded, we leave to the reader's 
imagination. 



The Peregrinations of a 
Disciple of Tolstoy. 

TT is nearly a week now since I came to 
''- Grayvoron (province of Koursk), and I have 
not yet written to you, my dear friends. I did 
not wish to write only a few lines, just for the 
sake of writing, and to describe my journey 
well I needed a little time to rest. The 



ouriadnik'^' arrested me on July t8, in the 
afternoon. He was very amiable and very 
obliging, probably he feared some scandal ; 
that is to say, that perhaps 1 should have to be 
carried through the street by force, or perhaps 
he was afraid lest I should beat him. 'How- 
ever, neither happened, and I went with him 
without any resistance. At first he took me 
to the stanovoy in Byelopolye, where he asked 
for directions concerning me, but what they were 
I do not know. On the way from Byelopolye 
to Ryechki, we talked about life in general, and 
the outiadnik maintained that all we do leads 
to nothing but rebellion. After a long dis- 
cussion he asked me : " Well then, is not even 
the Tzar put there by God ? " In answer to 
that I read to him the third temptation of 
Jesus in the wilderness; he understood, but 
began a cautious reply, to the ciifect that what 
is said in the Gospel could not be true, that 
there could have been no temptations for Jesus, 
since he was led into the wilderness by the 
Holy Spirit. I was very much astonished that 
an ouriadnik could philosophise in this sophis- 
tical way, and beean to question him, but 
unfortunately got no more subtleties out of him. 
When we reached Ryechki it was evening, 
and there I was left to pass the night in an 
unfurnished volost ; everywhere were rubbish, 
bricks and plaster; the dessialsikie made for 
themselves a bed of planks, but I had to sleep 
on the rubbish — it was very uncomfortable and 
rough, because I had nothmg at all to cover it 
with. Next morning, at 7 o'clock, we started 
without having had any breakfast, and reached 
the police-station at Soumi at about 12 o'clock. 
The ispravnik, with official politeness and severe 
gravity, informed me that he would send me on 
according to his own judgment, then rang the 
bell and told the soldier who came in to take 
me and keep a watch upon me until further 
orders. 

1 was conducted to the barracks, where the 
soldiers received me amiably and even respect- 
fully; it appeared afterwards that most of them 
took a great interest in " our religion " as they 
call it. What especially interests them is that 
this religion should change the lives of men 
and destroy the evil which comes from the 

f resent social organisation and disorderly life, 
am very sorry that I was not able to talk to 
the soldiers more ; but in 15 or 20 minutes the 
ispravnik ordered me to be sent to the soumi voiost 
with another young man (who had no passport). 
We were accompanied by two soldiers, who on 
the way asked me about their doubts with 
feverish haste, the distance from the police to 
the volost being very short. The soldiers totft 
leave of me very kindly, wishing me all sorts of 
good things. la the Soumi volost I was 
received almost as an acquaintance, but very 



■ Village constable. 



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November i, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



seriously and cautiously; I was immediately 
locked up, and they evidently did not forget that 
1 and M. V. had said not very pleasant things 
to them when we came to see Nicholas in 
prison. The slarosta and the slarsktna (chief of 
the volost) were not present, but the clerks came 
in and talked to me ironically, calling me a 
preacher, the proclaimer of a new God. But 
their satire went no further than this, as they 
did not know what else to say, and moreover I 
cooled them down a little. After that they did 
not try to be ironical any more, but when they 

fassed the window of the prisoners' room, where 
was sitting, only bowed politely and went 
their way. Besides myself and the young man, 
there were two more persons in the prisoners' 
room, anested the day before ; a girl about 
16-17 years old, sentenced by the volcst to a 
week's imprisonment for tarring somebody's 
gate,' and a boy of about lo, who went about 
the town with beggars. The parents of this 
boy had lived togetner without being married 
for years, and now the mother had found 
another husband, and the father another wife, 
so that the boy was left without a home. The 
mother did not want him, and the father could 
not take him, because his new wife would not 
acknowledge the child as hers, and so the poor 
boy wandered about the town with beggars or 
with other such little thieves as himself The 
day before my arrival he was caught in the 
town and brought to the volost in order to be 
sent to his birthplace, (where it appears he had 
no relations whatever^. But in the night the 
boy crept through the iron grate and went back 
to the town ; in the morning of course an alarm, 
" a prisoner escaped I " The starosta went on 
horseback in search of him, and passed nearly 
all the day in riding from one village to another, 
whilst the boy was found without his assistance 
in the town among the beggars and brought 
again to the lock-up. When I was brought to 
the volost from the police, I found there a crowd 
of employees of the volosi, passing the time by 
making fun of the little prisoner, who stood, 
looking at them from under his eyebrows. The 
scene reminded me very much of big dogs 
worrying a small kitten. 

In the evening the siarosta returned, and on 
being told that the prisoner had been found, 
flew into the room, dragged the boy from the 
bed and began to thrash him, accompanying 
the punishment with appropriate exhortations, 
and justifying himself by declaring that he 
might have got into gaol himself through 
that rascally boy. The scene was a very dis- 
agreeable one, and I was going to interfere 
when the liarMta noticed my presence, and, 
recogoiaing me, evidently felt ill at ease, <a was 
perlups afraid that he liad gone too far in the 
presence of witnesses; anyhow, he left the boy, 

' A great ioaull among ttas peuuiiry. 



and addressing me as if to excuse or justify 
himself, said that the prisoner was a scoundrel, 
and had put him, the starosla, into a most 
awkward position. When 1 replied that the 
boy was quite a child, and that it was ridiculous 
to call him "prisoner," the sUmsta murmured 
somethmg, but seeing that I did not agree 
with him, went out of the room swearing. 
After this operation, swelhngs came out on the 
poor boy's temples, and he cried and sobbed 
for a long time. 

In the evening both I and the other prisoners 
grew hungry, and I decided to ask for some- 
thing to eat, without giving money. I asked 
first, then the other prisoners followed suit, but 
it turned out to be no easy thing to get any- 
thing to eat. Probably the ofScials were used 
to such requests, and nobody even listened to 
them. At last I decided to give some money 
to buy bread for me and for other prisoners, 
but even this was not so easy. They refused, 
on the pretext that the shops were a long way 
off, and that they had nobody to send. I do 
not know whether I should have had anything 
had I not called from the window to all the 
the passers by, and drawn their attention to 
the unkindness of starving people. The persons 
whom I addressed evidently felt awkward, 
but they all seemed to be ashamed of 
pitying us, and hurried away from the window, 
shrugging their shoulders. At last there came 
up a very small boy who was employed in 
the clerk's room. He began talking to the 
little prisoner with childish friendliness, and 
even started a game with him. It was so 
natural, and so unlike all the surroundings, 
that I looked on with peculiar enjoyment. I 
asked this boy to go and buy bread for us, and 
he immediately consented. No light was given 
to us in the evening ; the paraska was brought in, 
and we were told that we should not be allowed 
to leave the room during the night. As soon 
as it grew dark, and we lay down, we were 
instantly attacked by such an enormous number 
of bugs that it was quite impossible to sleep. 
Several times I struck matches, and looked at 
the walls and the benches ; they were all liter- 
ally swarming with vermin. It was horrible. In 
fact, none of us could get any sleep the whole 
night. 

From the ^OMtalvolost I was taken to the next 
village under escort. My guards had probably 
been ordered to watch me very closely, and not 
to talk \ for when the younger, who was rather 
inquisitive, tried to begin a conversation, the 
eider checked him severely, and told him to 
mind his business. 

The Soumi Upravnik forwarded me on from 
Soumi, under escort of the village police, 
sending with me a packet addressed to the 
isprcamik of Grayvoron, and an open letter of 
instructions, stating that I was to travel under 
the strictest watch, and with an escort of not 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1892. 



less than two strong men. Such severe instruc- 
tions made a corresponding impression in all the 
volosh and villages, and everybody suspected 
me of being a great criminal as — so they said — 
this was the first time any one had been sent ■ 
with such instructions. If yon take into con- 
sideration my tall stature and strong build, 
you will not be astonished to learn that even 
two dessiaiikie were afraid to escort me, and 
often asked cliat a ihird should accompany us. 
Moreover, the dissiahkU were always given a 
rope, in order that on the way they mrght be 
able to tie me and lead me by the rope. Ttiat 
is picturesque, is it not ? 

It is true they did not bind me. They felt 
somehow a little reluctant to do it, but they 
accompanied me with great fear, and always 
declared that they could not know what I had 
in my heart. But they behaved diRerently in 
different places. The Great Russians have a 
more confiding character than the Little 
Russians, and in the Russian villages of the 
Koursk province, only the authorities were afraid 
of me, whilst the escort paid no attention to 
the dreadful instructions, and everyone was 
willing to escort me quite alone. 

The peasants of the volost and especially the 
dissiatskie who had to accompany me, always 
asked why I was sent under such strict guard, 
and I did my best to explain it to them. My 
explanations were received in various ways ; 
some agreed that everything I said was true, 
but the majority showed a kind of mistrust — 
they could not believe (hat anyone would be 
sent under such strict guard to live in 
Grayvoron for such a thing. 

I remember the first RusEtan village, at which 
1 arrived on a week day. All its population, 
except old women and little children, was out 
in the fields haymaking. We went to the 
village hall, but there was no one to be seen. 
After some minutes a lot of women from the 
neighbouring houses came in and formed a 
crowd. These women offered me food and 
brought a whole •linncr. While I was eating, 
therB appeared in the hall from somewhere or 
other two old men, and soon afterwards the 
clerk came. Having read the paper which was 
sent with me, he stopped an old man who was 
driving a cart with corn, and told him to take 
me to the next village. The old man reluctantly 
consented, but the clerk looked again at the 
paper and found that it would be quite im- 
possible to send me with only one man, and 
that an old one. In the meantime came the 
ttarosla, and a discussion began as to whom 
else they should send with me. They wanted 
another old man to go, but he refused, saying 
that I might kill them both on the way. Then 
the curiosity of the public awoke and they 
wanted to know why I was being sent to 
Grayvoron with such a strict paper. I told them 
in a few words, but the people did not understand 



at first, so new was it to them. The women over- 
whelmed me with questions. " Then you think 
we don't need even the churches? " '■ Where 
then would you prepare for the sacrament ? 
where then would you consecrate the apples 00 
the Saviour's feast ? " " Then you don't even 
think the wells ought to beconsecrated ?" asked 
one woman. At the same moment someone 
else asked about the images of the saints. 
" How is it then, do you not believe in the 
holy images ? " X answered that 1 not bow 
down to the ikom. After that the wonien 
began to sigh and groan and looked at me with 
mingled fear and curiosity. " In that case you 
worship idols, you are pagans," said an old 
peasant. I asked him, "what is an idol? " 
At first he was embarrassed, but presently 
said that it is the same as the devil. I 
asked : " What is the devil ? " None of 
them could reply to that question. I began 
to explain it myself, and they approved of 
the explanation. Only some of the women 
made a disturbance, and would not listen to 
any explanation; but the others stopped the 
noise and hstened with curiosity, some even 
showing that they agreed with me. Just then 
a middle-aged peasant passed the village on his 
way to fetch corn, The starasta stopped him 
and told him to take me and the old man to the 
next village. He at first refused, but the other 
peasants began to explain to him something 
about me and urged him to take me on and to 
inquire into the details of the matter on the 
way, — evidently they took a great interest in 
my explanations. 

On the way he did not allow me time to 
breathe; he questioned me constantly and 
made me read the gospel to him. He approved 
of everything I read and told him, and in the 
end became a zealous pArtisan of the teaching 
ol Christ. I have seldom met such enthusiastic 
people. As soon as we came to the next 
village, he began with great animation to repeat 
everything 1 had said to the first peasant he 
met with. I was astonished to see that be 
remembered not only the sense, but even all 
the expressions I had used. Afterwards, how- 
ever, I noticed that Russians catch upmuch mtxe 
easily the form than the substance of a thing. 
The new hearer listened quietly to the end, but 
was in no way moved and rather threw cold 
water upon my propagandist, who became 
quite disheartened, and tried to defend me, bat 
as he had repeated everything I had said and 
had nothing of his own to say, he could not add 
anything and was obliged to remain silent and 
melancholy. I think he was discouraged, too, 
by the fact that I did not take his part, but 
remained silent. He even appealed to me 
to explain, but I did not- comply with his 
request, partly because he had already said 
enough, and partly because 1 was anxious to 
know what the others would say. The RuSBiins 



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November i, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



13 



are an inquisitive race. As soon as the people 
noticed that someone was in the village hall, 
they began to drop in to hear the news. They 
Would come, look, listen a little, and go about 
their business. Toeveryoneof themmyadvocate 
explained with great animation the teaching of 
Christ. But no one else received it with such 
earnestness, and all were more or less sceptical. 
That cooled him down and even made him sad. 
Evening fell, and the people came back from 
the fields ; there was quite a crowd in the hall; 
many of them were rather tipsy (they had 
evidently been " on the spree"), but among 
them were some who had already heard my 
story. Discussions and questions arose. My 
advocate tried once more to arouse sympathy 
with my teaching and began to preach with 
great animation, but at the most interesting 

f lace he was interrupted and informed that he 
new nothing at all about the matter, that the 
gospel had nothing to do with il, but that I had 
simply sold my soul to the devil, who rewarded 
me for it with money. Everyone began to talk 
at once. The noise was indescribable. One 
of the crowd, brandishing a pitchfork, shouted 
that such people as I ought to be strangled at 
once, to rid the earth of them. " I'd give him 
a good licking with this pitchfork —yes, and 
I'd run it through him, — that I would I" 

One moment! thought that the people were 
going to tear me in pieces, so threatenmg were 
their cries, but when I looked more closely at 
their faces, I saw that it was only talk, and that 
the men were not only not angry, but even 
good natured. After that the whole thing 
seemed to me to be comic, and I held my 
tongue and awaited the end of the stormy 
scene with curiosity. In five minutes the noise 
stopped, all the people became quiet, and some 
asked me quite composedly how could I make 
up my mind to forsake my God and sell my 
soul to the devil. I began to question them in 
my turn, and when they could not answer my 
questions, I answered them myself. The end was 
that all of them listened quietly, or asked ques- 
tions without any more noise. They took leave 
of me quite amiably, and repeated all the time : 
"Well, God knowsabout iCall; we are ignorant 
people, we grow up like the grass, how should 
we understand it all 7 " 

I intended at first to describe to you all my 
impressions of the journey, and then pass on to 
the town of Gray voron ; but now Isee that this 
would need too much time and space, and 1 
want to send this letter as soon as possible, so 
I will write shortly. 

On the 23rd, at one o'clock in the afternoon, 
I was brought to the town of Grayvoron, and 
taken straight to the police station. The next 
morning I had a swim, and alterwards went for 
a walk about the town and its environs. 1 
returned to the police station about it o'clock 
in the morning, and was told that the ispravnik 



had asked for me. I went to him ; he turned 
out to be a good-humoured looking old man, 
and not at all imposing. After reading the 
papers concerning me, he asked, " Why did 
not you wish to choose a place of residence for 
yourself? It would have been much better for 
you I" I answered that I thought it best not 
to choose any place. 

" Then where do you intend to live ? If you 
would like to go anywhere, you can always do 
so. I will give you a passport." I replied that 
for the present I did not intend to go any* 
where, but would remain in Gray voron. "What 
will you do here?" "I don't know." That 
was the end of our conversation. The ispravnik 
then sent for the police -serge ant, and told him 
to find work for me if I should be in need of it, 
and if I should want lodgings to show me some 
decent place where I should not find drunken- 
ness or vice. I was quite astonished at the 
considerateness of the ispravnik, 1 remained a 
few days in the police barracks, and now I 
have a lodging for which I pay one rouble a 
month. I have a nice large room. My land- 
lady is a widow with one little girl 1 1 years old. 
She has another boarder who occupies the room 
next to me. He is a retired captain of about 
35 years of age. He talks to me constantly 
about the saints, who, according to him, were 
all generals, or, at least, colonels in theRus$ian 
service : only a few of them belonged to the 
clergy. But now enough of this letter. Next 
time I will describe all my Grayvoron adven- 
tures. This little town is quite in a wilderness, 
the nearest railway station being 50 verstsaway. 
I hope for news from you ; all tlie people here 
are strangers, so I feel very lonely. I should 
like to read, but it is very difficult to get any 
books here, if not quite impossible. Ask all my 
acquaintances and friends who read this letter, 
to write to me whenever there is anything inter- 
esting. 1 will write to them in time. I forgot 
one more thing : when 1 was staying in the 
police barracks the pristav of the town police 
sent for me, and announced that I am placed 
under his surveillance by the Grayvoron police. 
He gave me a paper to read, which stated that 
I am banished from the Kharkov province, for 
propagating the pernicious doctrines of Stun- 
dism, and that he has directions to watch lest I 
should propagate these doctrines in Grayvoron. 
The pristav then put on an important air, and 
gravely said; "I must warn you that if you 
attempt to propagate your doctrine here, it will 
be the worse for you." 

I, taking a serious tone in my turn, replied 
that I shall be the same here as the Soumi 
district. The pristav at first looked embar- 
rassed, then bethought himself andsaid: "I only 
warn you; the rest does not concern me, only 
if it should be proved that you are propagating 
your doctrine, you will he committed for trial," 
After that I left him. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November I, 1892. 



The Cholera Riots. 

(From our own Correspondent.) 

Saratov," October 3rd (isth), 

I WRITE you as an eye-wilness of what was going 00 
in our town during the troublous " riot "^ays, and 1 
assure you that if you had been in my placeand were after- 
wards to road the description in our papers of the events 
¥]u had witnessed, you would never recognise them, 
a b^n with, all the rioting was represented as a mere 
oulbrMk of a crowd of bruialised savages who opposed 
medical men, as such, because Ihey, the savages, thought 
it sinful 10 oppose God's will, or because they had con- 
ceived a superstitious, inexplicable terror of ^! tnedicine 
and all sanitary precautions. No one reported, and under 
our censorship no one could report, the legends which 
circulated among the peasantry about the cholera ; but 
if they were reported, they — however fantastic in them- 
selves — would snow clearly that at the bottom oi all the 
troubles lay the old. but, in Russia, always burning, 
agrarian question. One of the most moderate and 
judicious men engaged in the famine-relief work, who had 
crossed a large distressed district in various directions 
<aod whom for obvious rsasons 1 cannot name), derived 
from what be had seen and heard a profound conviction 
(which he expressed openly) that agrarian troubles are 
pending. This was before the cJiolera. The exhausted 
population, which had just gone through the martyrdom 
of the famine, aggravated by the tyranny of officialdom, 
.was in an agitated, irritable condition. The Irritation 
waa so great that all the Zemtkii Nackalmki (District 
Commajiders) of the Saratov province left their head- 
quarters in the country and sought refnge in Saratov. 
The provincial governor repeat«lly ordered them to 
-0 their post and duties, but they never obeyed 



weighing on their conscience if Ibey were so much 
afraid of the people. The first alarming news about 
the cholera added to the feverish condition of the people. 
The rumours of the emtiezilements perpetrated by the 
officials to whom the iamine-relief money was entrusted, 
and of the "coming" new allotments of land " granted 
to the peasants by the Tiar " began to assume new 
proportions. Jast at that time the first clumsy, official 
steps were taken 10 meet the approaching calamity, and 
struck the people in a way that still more affectea their 
excited imaginations. They seemed to have been seized 
not t^ kind-hearted and prudent friends, but by a band 
of brutal and shameless enemies, who were preparing to 
slaughter, in one way or other, as many citizens as ibey 
possibly could. In the hospital destined for the cholera 
patients, a large number of coffins were got ready, while 
there were as yet no patients. The police received orders 
to search the houses (or the purpose of finding out those 
attacked by cholera, who were to be put, even if by force, 
into the cholera vans, which had a peculiarly hideous 
appearance, being without any windows or apertures and 
painted all in bUck. 

After the legends, circulating among the people, 
only one more touch was needed, and this was given 
by the details above-mentkmed. There were two tnain 
versions of Ihal^ends. One waa as follows: — The officials 
and landowners had embezzled a large sum of money which 
was sent by (he Tzar to buy grain for the people ; then, on 
learning that the Tzar had sent the heir apparent to the 
famine- stricken districts to make an inquiry into the 
matter, the landowners andofficials" introduced" cholera 
(others said ; Spread false reports of cholera and pre- 
tended to take precautions against It). According to the 
other version, the Tzar, after the famine, came to the 
convictitH) that the peasants bad not land enough ; he, 

• SaralOT lies on Itag Volgm 
carrjjni on a large trade^ esp. 



lily in ETnia, fruil and fiih 

„ g,^.. .^ ... Hi.in li6fo-.67j( and Pi 

_,,,. S»niiovp1»)ml « ,. ,, , 

the rebels. Now it is rreqiienlly cMei 
waallby comilrjr utang the Volgi, 



ra Ihe capiial of tbe I 



theietore, resolved to take a certain portion of it from 

the landowners and bestow new Edlotmentson the peasants; 
but as soon as the landowners and officials got wind of 
that they poisoned the wells, and in that and other ways 
tried to reduce tbe number of peasants, in order th 
diminish the amount of land which was to be expropriated 
from them for the benefit of the peasantry. 

Id the meantime the police, who had no real knowledge 
of the cholera symptoms, made a number of blunders 
which seemed to confirm the popular belief. Some 
policemen, on bearing that a woman was ill, entered her 
house and began to question her : whether she had a pain 
in her heart, whether her digestion was bad, whether her 
head ached, and so on through a whole list of what they 
considered to be choleraic symptoms The woman, who 
was very old and had been bedridden (or two years, 
answered every question in the affirmative, as everything 
seemed to pain her. Thereupon she was forcibly taken 
' 10 the cholera hospital. And such blunders were not 
rare. The brutality of the police, together with the 
cowardice of some ofhcial representatives of the medical 
body, irritated the population more and more, and finally 
two new mistakes put an end to its patience. A drunken 
woman, being observed vomiting in the market-place, and 
a drunken peasant were taken as ill with cholera, and 
were locked up in the cholera hospital. When the man 
slept off the fumes of whiskey and realised where he was, 
he became mad with panic. By a heavy blow he 
smashed the window, and, jumping out, appM,red in the 
market-place in a state of violent excitement. This was 
the last spark that set on fire the anger of tbe population. 

The first hateful objects that met the sight of the 
infuriated crowd were the prisonlike cholera vans. These 
were destroyed at once, and on this occasion a driver and 
two men of the escort were killed. Then the operations 
ot the "rioters" became more systematic, and I should 
like to call the attention of every reader to the character 
of the latter : it is most instructive. The first regular 
assault was directed, not afiaiost tbe cholera hospital, as 
was reported in the press, but against thi kiad-quarteri 
oflktpatitc. These were invaded and all the documents, 
the furniture, everything that was destructible, was torn 
or broken to pieces. Then the assailants went If the 
rtsiiaue e/ Iht previneial gevirner. Here, however, troops 
were already assembled, and the crowd, being unarmed, 
turned to the hospital. In the hospital no one was 
injured. All the physicans. all their assistants, had &t& 
beforehand ; a uogle trained nurse was at her post, but 
she was not hurt. I should mention here that in the 
country round Saratov, where similar events took place, 
the peasants themselves warned the best doctors to take 
refuge somewhere before the riots began. 

Three men belonging to tbe educated class were arrested 
during the Saratov riots : a lawyer, a veterinary surgeon 
and a schoolmaster. The lawyer had tried (and with 
success) to restrain the mob from deeds of violence by 
shouting: "Mates, let these scoundrels alone for now; 
they shall get what they deserve afterwards, but now 
let us goto the chemist's abopand bandage up the wound 
of one of our fellows 1 " (this referred to a tour/at* 
whose finger had been cut off in the street fight}. The 
two others threw themselves between the people and the 
troops, trying to prevent bloodshed. Ail tne three Were 
seized as " nihilists," and their further fate is unknown. 

Some particulars of the Saratov riots are of the greatest 
significance, as they give hints upon the various possi- 
bilities that may be anticipated in case things come to a 
real popular liaing in Russia. Tbe two improvised chief 
leadera of the rioters— both teur/ais—oi whom one, 
Kiishin by name, is renowned for his enormous physical 
strength, displayed, on a small scale, the same presence 
of mind, courage and talent as military tacticians, as did 
similar leaders under Pougach6v, when the rebellion 
in Saratov was quelled, the two leaders crossed the river 



n SinTMov. Thoii |if( 



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November i, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



•5 



■Dd, from a Uife village tm tbe other dde, called 
Pobrovka, lenl to the Saratov autfaorities a telegram, 
infonning them of an upriiing there, which had never 
taken place. Their aim was lo weaken Ihe military forcet 
of Saratov bv dividing them between Chat town and 
Foltr^vka, and then to revive the Saratov revolt. Indeed, 
one battalion of infantry was sent across the Volga. 
This, however, did not anSiciently weaken the military 
forces in Saratov lo enable tbe plan lo succeed. Not Inss 
tignificant was the fact that, nolsviihslaoditig the sug- 
gestions of the civil authorities to send out small patrols, 
the military commander of the troops did not dare to do 
K> for fear that in small bodies tii iiieiplint migkl insily 
bt broln*. Very different from that is expected to be Ilie 
temper of tbe Don Cossacks. These privileged troops 
look down upon the peasants with contempt, and seem lo 
be tbur bttteresl «nemiea, When two divisions of them, 
which were mobilised in order to put down the upriaiag 
which had begun to spread through the country rovm^ 
Saratov, passed through that city, the Cossack olScers 
expressed tbe apprehension that their subordinates would 
deal with tbe peasantry without mercy. 

M. Saratovbtz. 



Letter to the Editor. 

Dear Sir, — I hear, from a friend, 
that it is an undoubted fact that ships, 
fitted with iron cages, are being built 
for the Russian government, upon the 
river Clyde. They are believed to be 
for the conveyance of political prisoners 
to Siberia by the Northern Seas. Might 
I ask you to give publicity to this state- 
ment, in order that it may if possible 
be contradicted. 

Yours truly, 

" Daylight " 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS OP RUSSIAN PREEDOM. 

Forther List of Sabsorlptioiu of 2b. 6d. and upwards. — (In chrono'ogkal order.) 



Fer Dr. Rubinstein, Johan- 
nesburg : — 

Nathan. B 

Phillips, S 

Heyraann, 5, L,... 

Koenigsberg, Mrs. 
Standring, G.. London ... 
Spicer, Mrs. A„ St. Mary 

Cray 

Richards, Mrs., Guernsey i 



Wilson. E. K., London ... i 
Hartley, Euston, London... 
Procter. R.. Alloa, N.B. ... 
Cooper, Miss, London ... 
Lowe, Captain, London ... < 
Smith, C. W. B.. B'gbam > 
Maples. R. M.. Kent 
Ittmann, G. P., Jnr., The 

Biggs, M. A., London 



Litlleboy. A. L., London,.. 
Rownlree, B. S., York ... 
Thompson, Miss K., Bridg- 

Bindall, Mrs., London, ... 

Soutball, Miss H., Leo- 
minstai 

Offertory in Darley Church. 
Matlock, per Rev. Canon 
F. Atkinson 



LAURIE'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE. 



Ntw Editions of ihe foUowin^ just issued: — 
Laorie'a Teobnleal Beadara. Laurie's Btandapd Seaderg. 

Laorftt'B Oriratal Readers. L&arle's Poetioal Series. 

Laurie's Manuals of Speolal InstpuoUon, viz.: 

Spelling; Grammar; Composition: Etymology; Geography; History; Aiilhmetic; Algebia; Natural Philost^hy ; 

Physiology ; Magnetism and Electricity ; Botany ; Geology : Political Economy ; French ; German ; 

Latin: Poetical- Scries; Bible Readings; Kindergarten; Home Lesson, &c. 

Laurie's Standard Copy Books. Laurie's BhUllnl Entertt^nlng Library. 

Laurie's Kensington Series. Lists m applicalion. 



rrilOACJLS LAURIES, 28, Patex-noBtex* Ro-nr 

Cmtractcr to Ihe War Office and Admiralty ; Maker to the Science DepartnuHt, South Kensington. 

School Books, Prizes, and Diagrams. Stationery and C«rtlflcat«a. Solenca Apparatus, 

Art Models. School Apparatus. School Libraries. Sloyd Tools. 

Kindergarten. ^riaultural Models. School Museums. 

Elementary sod High Schools, Technical Collies and Manual Work Clsss-n>oms fitted up and furnished 



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l6 FREE RUSSIA. November I, 1892. 

WHY DOES RUSSIA LAG BEHIND 

in the March of Hnmanity to Freedom ? Is it not perhaps because being 
a nation of Tea Drinkers she still clings to the sapless and strengthless 
China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
progress have accepted with glad acclairn 

VENOYA»™TEA 

which combines the strength of Indian Tea with the flavour of Ceylon 
Tea and compared with which the Teas of old are as water unto wine 
or as the rushh'ght's glimmer to the electric glow. 

Women of light and leading everywhere apprccia te a cup ' of good Tea. 
Let those who have not yet done so 
TRY yBNOYA, TECK NEW TEA, 



A POSTCARD addpcssed to the PropPietora of VENOYA TEA, 19 & 20, CAMOMILE STREET, 
will bring you by retupn ■ FREE SAMPLE and the name of the neatest agent 

TT'TPimmn'D ^^ fermented 
Albl! Jljlllli, COW'S MILK. 

THE LIGHTEST FOOD FOR THE WEAKEST DIGESTION. 



If taken regolsrly and In safBoient qnantities, It restores the strength of coavaleBoents 
and persons ezhaasted by overstrain: regalatee digestion, Inoreases the weight and 
Bleeping power, and improves the general oondition of the patient. 



The Lancet says: " Kefeer may be used with confidence in those ailments for which Koumiss is 
esteemed valuable. It is especially useful in cases of general defective nutrition." (March 26 
1892, p. 700.) 

The Brithk Medical journal says : " Kefeer is said to be especially valuable in the treatment of 
chlorotis, anaemia, pulmonary catarrh, and chronic ulcer of the stomach, and cancer." (April 2 
1892, p. 721.) _^^ 



Co-OperatiYe Circassian Kefeer Co., 



71, SWANSCOHBE ROAD. 

'ij CHISWICK, W. 

Terms : Circassian Keefer is supplied daily in Imperial Pint Bottles in Three Brands : 

- A: Weak;. B: Medium, C: Strong. 

Prioe lOs. a dozen, or Us. for a ooarae of 60 Bottles. Separate Bottles. Is. 

Carriage Fru »'» London only. Bottles returned or prepaid at the rate of 2s. per dogen. 



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Free Russia 

TBS OUa^N OF TBS SHaUSH 
■'$ocietp of §ftten6s of 'glussfan §lrec6otn. " 

R«g)st«i^d AS a Newspaper for TransmiaBlon Abroad. 

Vol. 8.— No. 12.] LONDON, NEWYOBK & ZURICH: DECEUBEB 1st, 1892. [0«% Pesny. 

Alt Gonlributlont and Subwnptlont to b« iddreued to Or. R. 8PENGE WATSON, Bentham Qrova, Qatesheul, 

or, rrom South Africa, Dr. D. RUBINSTEIN, Box 911, JohannMburg, Transvaal. 
Individual conlributofs are alone reiponsibU for all statements in thtir communkatiota. 



XHK SECOND 



ANNUAL PUBLIC MEETING 

OF THE 

friends of "Russian §?reebom 



WILL BB HELD IN THE 



WESTMINSTER TO'WN HALL, 

OAXTON STREET, VICTORIA STREET, S.W., 

On TUESDAY Afternoon, DECEMBER 6tli, 1892, at 4 p.m., 

Dr. K. SPENCE WATSON in the chair. 



W. p. BYLKS, M.F., E. J. C. MORTON, MP., J. ALLANSOH PIOTON, M.P., 

Ths Be?. QANOH SHUITLSWOBIH, Hiu ISABELLA FOBD, 

HABOLD FBEDEBIG, SEBOIUS STEPNIAK, FELIX VOLKHOTSKT, 

And others are expected to take part in the proceedings. 



AU Members of the Society and sjmpathiseTS are invited to attend. Invitation Cards, 
which are not necessary for admission, can be obtained of the Secretary, 

W. W. Mackenzie, 
2^, Redclifpe Gardens, South Kpnsinoton. W. 

_ „ _ , Coogle 



FREE RUSSIA. December i, 1892. 



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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, founded in April, 1890, has for It objects to aid, to 

the extent of its powers, the Russian patriots who are trying to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all couatries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creed, who cannot witness writh indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tzars, 
and who wish a tietter future for the masses of the Russian people. Further contributions to the funds and 
further work are needed and will be welcome. Membership is acquiredby sending to the Treasurer an annual 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Free Russia post free. 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM, 
Those marked with an *, form the Executive Committee. 

_„_ .„. "Edward R. Pease. •Miss Hesba Btrelton. 

R. A. Hudson. *CI. H. Perrit. dames Stuart, M.P. 

Mrs. Edwin Human. *i. Allanson Pioton, M.P. 'Herbert M. Thompson. 

Per«y W. Buntlnf.' Rt.Hon.J.Q.Shaw-Lefevre,M.P Mrs. Herbert Rix. *Win. Thompson. 

Thomas Burt, M.P. R. Mevnard Leonard. 'Herbert Rix. J. 8. Trotter. 

■W. P. Byles, MP. John Mecdonald- H. Roberts. >T. Fisher Unwtn, 

The Countess of Carlisle. 'Mrs. Charles Mallet. Joshua Rowntree. 'Mrs. Wilfrid Voynich. 

Rev. W. Moore Ede. Rev. Donald Morrison. Wm. Saunders, LC.C.M.P. Mn, E. Spenoe Watson. 

J. E. Ellis, M.P. 'E-J. C. Morion, M.P. 'Adolphe Smith. Alfrwl Webb, M.P. 

Miss Isabella 0. Ford. J. Fletcher Moulton, Q.O. *aeo. Standrine. 'Miss Helen Webb, M.B, 

•L. T. Hobhouse. 'Mrs. Edward R. Pease. Henry C. Stephens, M.P. 'Mrs. H. Q. Webb. 

Henry J, Wilson, M.P. 
'Robert Spenoe Watson, LLD., Hon. Trtaturer, Bensham Grove, Gateshead. 
■ William W. Mackeniie, Han. Seerelaiy, 34, Redcliffe Gardens, South Kensington. London, S.W. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



SCIENCE AND ART APPARATUS AND DIAGRAMS 

For TEACHING ALL SCIENCES AND TRADES 



IT xz o xa .a. s x^ a. u zs. x e:. 

Maker to the Science Department, South Kensington, 
as, PAfTEiRNOSrFEIR RO IW, LONDON. 



Ust on Applloatlon. 



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December I, 1892. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



CONTENTS. 

The Annua'. Mutiug of the SociHy. — Expected 
" RefortHs" in Russia. — A New Clandestine Paper. 
— The Prison-Ship Affair (by S. Stepniak).— 
Mr. li. Frederic's "New Exodus" (by H, M. 
Thompson). — The Russian Peasants {by S. Stepniak). 
— Trails of the Russian Coitrt.— Branch Work. — 
Reviews. — Lecture List. -^Meetings. 

Ail MSS., Letters to the Editor, Advertisements, 
S-c, should be addressed to the Editor, Free Russia, 
3, Iffiey Road, Hammersmith, London. 

Advertisements received up to the 2^tk of each 
month wilt appear in the next issue. Advertisements 
in Ike English, American and German editions at 
reduced rates. 

Communications with regard to the Society of 
Friends of Russian Freedom should be addressed to 
the Honorary Secretary (Mr. W. Mackenzie). 24, 
Redcliffe Gardens, South Kensington, London, S.W. 

London, December i, 1892. 
rPHE second annual meeting of tlie Society 
-^ of Friends of Russian Freedom will be 
Iield on December 6tli, at 4 p.m., in West- 
minster Town Hall, Dr. Spence Watson will 
take the chair. 

For about tliree years a body of devoted men 
and women, assembled at the call of the eminent 
Newcastle leader, have carried on the arduous 
task of (ixiug upon the Russian question as 
much of tlie attention of English-speaking people 
as is possible in our feverish time. Through 
all difficulties the work has been carried oh 
uninterruptedly, and this alone gives us now a 
stronger position than we had a year ago. 
Certain social works are like newly-planted 
trees. If one sees them not withering foe a 
long time, but keeping green outside, one may 
be sure that they are striking out roots into the 
soil. The Russian cause lias unquestionably 
struck deeper into the English soil within the 
last year. More people know of the existence 
of our society and understand its aims. The 
public sympathy with our work has grown and 
the circle of men and women who have made 
the cause of Russian freedom their own lias 
widened. It is widening daily. The great 
calamity which struck the Russian people in 
the course of last year and the vast work of 
collecting relief have contributed much towards 
bringing before the publ.c notice the abnormal 
and mr>Et deplorable interior conditions of 
Russia, and have called forth that feeling of 
international brotherhood which is the founda- 
tion of all good work done for Russia from 
outside. 

As to the practical manifestations of the exten- 
sion of the pro-Russian movement abroad, we 
must mention, in ihe first place, the sirengtlien- 
ijjg of our American branch, which now npt 



merely reprints Freb Russia, but re-edits it to 
some extent, and has funds enough to eecura 
the continuation of the issue for about two 
years in advance. There arc fair prospects of 
the foundation of an Au tralian branch of our 
society. 

At the last annual meeting the Secretary 
announced a forthcoming German edition of 
Fr£E Russia. In the course of last year ten 
numbers of the German Frei Russland appeared 
in Switzerland, meeting with a most cordial 
reception among all the advanced parties of 
Germany. No formal German branch of our 
society has been founded as yet, but we have 
been fortunate in enlisting a number of promi- 
nent men in Germany who are in thorough 
synipJLthy with our objects and tine ol action, 
and who have staunchly supported us on many 
occasions. To them we owe the failure of an 
attempted extradition, having rather the charac- 
ter of a kidnapping case, which two months 
ago the Russian spies tried to carry into effect 
in conspiracy with the Magdeburg police. The 
society has got a strong footing m Germany, 
and its position is sure to improve, which, 
we hardly need to say, is of very great im- 
portance, Germany being Russia's next-door 
neighbour. Yet, it must be confessed that the 
position of the German Frii Russland, as a 
periodical, is far from being satisfactory. In 
fact, it is more precarious than that of the 
English edition. 

This brings us to the important point of 
considering the actual position and prospects 
of the paper in this country. For the two last 

fears the main practical object of our society 
las been the carrying on of Frek Russia. 
With the experience of these two years before 
us, we can conscientiously affirm that the 
publication has done a good work for the 
Russian cause. Though very young, as papers 
go, it has acquired a certain place among the 
thousands of periodicals trumpeting to the world 
in various tongues their various messages. 
Some of the largest English, American and 
Continental papers {the French excepted), 
numbering their readers by hundreds of thous- 
ands, frequently quote from our leaflet. Some 
of the articles of Free Russia have been 
reprinted in full up to seventeen times on 
the Continent, widening our circle of readers 
enormously. We have thus succeeded in 
realising, to some extent, our original plan of 
making our special paper a source of informa- 
tion which other larger papers should utilise 
and spread. We hope, as time goes on, to 
be able to realise this object more fully. 

But the number of our regular subscribers is 
small in this country, as well as in Germany 
and Americ*a,andwe do not expect it to greatly 
increase in ttie future. There is unmistakeably 
a certain general and permanent interest in 
Itussian things in this community. People 



>8le 



FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1892. 



read willingly news about Russia in their own 
papers, and accordingly the editors will have 
such news. But the same people have neither 
time nor interest enough to regularly read a 
periodical devoted entirely to Russian affairs. 

That is how and why it comes to pass that 
our paper, whilst honoured by such an unusual 
amount of attention, remains itself such a small 
affair. It is like a sort of ferment, the action 
of which can in no way be measured by the 
quantity in which it is introduced. 

In another part of our present issue the 
reader will find an article upon the building of 
ships with iron cages. The case proves to 
demonstration that a small quantity of ferment 
will occassionally produce a good deal of fer- 
mentation. 

There is nothing contradictory or discourag- 
ing in the fact that our paper, parts of which 
sometimes reach millions of readers — pre- 
sumably having some influence upon them~~ 
cannot be properly supported by the few 
thousands of regular subscribers who get it in 
totality. No paper having any special cause 
to champion and any mission to fulfil has ever 
been self-supporting. The anti-slavery papers, 
the missionary- papers, the organs of the peace 
and arbitration societies, — all papers of the 
nature of Free Russia — have been and are 
supported on principle by those who sympathise 
with their object and believe in the usefulness 
of their work. 

It seems to be a law of social life that all the 
best, most humane ideas, feelings and aspira- 
tions, which are to remould in the future the 
opinions and institutions of the community, 
should be harboured for a long time among 
minorities, as infinitesimal when compared with 
the community, as the ferment with the grape- 
juice that it turns to wine. 

Free Russia needs funds. It is expected 
that more than one speaker at the coming 
annual meeting will make an appeal for them, 
and we hope that it will meet with a response. 



/^NE still hears occasionally the opinion that 
^-^ the revolutionary outbreaks in Russia have 
imposed a policy of reprisals and reaction on 
the government, which otherwise might be 
inclined to make some concessions to the spirit 
of the a§e. The revolutionists, on tlie con- 
trary, maintain that no concessions have been 
made by the Russian government, except under 
the pressure of the fear of some imminent 
outbreak. 

I-ooking upon what is going on in Russia, it 
is impossible to deny that the evidence of facts 
is decidedly in favour of the latter view. 

The disclosures brought about by the recent 
famine, and the light they have thrown upon 
the interior conditions of Russia, ate of such a 
nature that tbevery paving-stones might under- 



stand the necessity of broad and general 
interior reforms. 

But there were no outbreaks worth speaking 
of, and the result is thai we see now unmis- 
takeable signs of the strengthening of the 
reaction in Russia. The man whose political 
views and religious intolerance bring us back to 
the Byzantine period, Mr. Pobyedonostzev, 
— whom even Mr. Stead could not digest, — 
has been appointed to the post of actual 
president of the state council, the Tzarevich 
being merely a figure head. We are informed 
trom St. Petersburg that the position of the 
new minister of finance, who indulged in a 
good deal of talk about the necessity for 
some sort of general reform, is quite insecure. 
He may be turned out any day. Persistent 
rumours circulate in the capital about the 
imminent abolition of the trial by jury (for 
common offences, as political ones have long been 
tried by special secret tribunals). It is affirmed 
that the present minister of justice, Mr. 
Mauassein, being against this "reform," Mr. 
von Pteve and Mr. Mouravtov have been pro- 
posed to the Tzar as possible successors to 
Mr. Monassein. Both, it is said, have consented 
to accept the post on condition that the 
"reform" be carried out by somebody else 
before they come to office. The post, it is said, 
has been offered to Likhachov (famous for his 
infamous exploits as a political inquisitor in 
1873- 1874), who has expressed his perfect 
willingness to accept the post on any condition. 



TT is hardly surprising that, such being the 
■*- state of thingsinRussia,the appearance of a 
clandestine revolutionary paper " The leaflet 
of the Narodnaya Volia," became "the event 
of the day," as our correspondent says, and 
according to the same authority, " is readwiih 
avidity both by those who endorse its pro- 
gramme and by those who do not." On account 
both of the timeof its appearance and of its size 
and contents, this publication is worth noticing. 
It could be issued only by a well -organised and 
fair-sized clandestine printing office, and it 
has evidently been written by experienced and 
thoughtful men. 

As to its programme, its main points are 
summed up in the following lines : 

" There isontyone way to restorelife to Russia : 
first of all, we must have political freedom. It is 
absolutely necessary, in order that radical 
reforms may be made and energetic measures 
undertaken to render the peasantry and working 
classes prosperous, and to raise tlie standard of 
the masses. In addition to this we want some 
security for the possibility of permanent work in 
this direction ; we want to become, in the fullest 
sense, educated workers ourselves ; we want to 
hve a full and free life, not a fictitious but a 
real social life, together with the working 



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December i, 1892, 



FREE RUSSIA. 



pO{> Illation ; — in short, we nant educated 
society and the working masses fused together 
into one whole, — a free people. All this can 
be realised only by the efforts of the healthy- 
minded portion of educated society, supported 
by the workers and, to somq extent, by the 
peasantry. The bitter experience of the past 
ten years has taught us how useless it is to 
expect anything ' from above.' Now instead of 
grievinglor the lost 'dawn of our regeneration' 
— instead of looking mournfully backwards — we 
must set to work to renew our ' revival ' ; just 
such a revival as there was 30 years ago. 
Indeed, in the interests of the people, even an 
imperfectly successful attempt to reform our 
life ' from below ' — out of the people's own 
strength, may be of more worth than freedom, 
granted as a gift from those in anthority — it 
will at least lay a foundation for the pplitkal 
iHd*paidence of the people. 
" Perhaps some will say that we are running on 
too far ahead, — that we have not vet developed 
to this point : * both society and the masses are 

so inert, and the government is so strong' 

Let us cast aside these everlasting sophisms. 
Russia cannot form [he one exception to the 
general rule that a despotic government inevit- 
ably ends in a collapse when once the people 
rise. However gloomy may be the future of 
the Russian people, in any case the days of the 
autocracy ace drawing to a close; time has 
made many breaches in its Chinese wall, and 
now so huge a crack has. become visible to all 
men that it cannot be plastered up like the 
former ones. The only question now is how 
and when the liquidation of the government's 
affairs will take place, how and when the 
power will be handed over to the people. 
But the time depends mainly upon the action 
of the governed mass ; it is not written down 
beforehand in the book of fate, and the condi- 
tions under which the transference of power 
shall be effected, will only be decided by the 
action of the living forces of society." 

In conclusion, the paper says, what is now 
the watchword of the whole Russian oppo- 
sition : — 
*' Historical conditions sometimes join together 
widely diUerlng social groups, by forcing them 
into the same path in order to reach some 
common aim. This is the case with us; the 
revolutionary forces are bound together with 
the best elements of the liberal opposition, and 
even with those who are simply engaged in 
intellectual work. When once, by means of 
propaganda and agitation, the revolutionary 
elements of both educated classes and working 
classes can become fused into one solid whole, 
supported by help and sympathy from among 
the peasantry, they will 1^ able to form a party 
strong enough to take upon itself the initiation 
of open warfare against the government." 



The Moral of the Prison 
Skip Affair. 

T^HE letter of our correspondent about the 
-*- building upon the Clyde of prison ships 
for the transport of political exiles to Sakhatien, 
published in our last issue, has produced quite 
a stir in the community. The news made the 
round of the English press. Reporters were 
sent to inquire into the matter. One of them 
went to the Russian Embassy, and had there 
some amusing experiences, which we reproduce 
below. Others chose a better way to discover 
the truth. They went to various ship-builders. 
At first the conclusion to which most of the 
papers came was that the news had no founda- 
tion. One of the leading Scotch papers, the H.B. 
Daily Mail, gave the following summary of the 
case: — 

" After a most exhaustive inquiry at every 
ship-building yard on the Cl^de, we are able 
to give the most positive denial to the above 
report. No Clyde ship-building firm has had 
an order in hand for the building of convict 
steamers for the Russian government ; nor do 
we believe that in the event of such an order 
being given out, any ship-builder on the 
Clyde would tender for it."— Eo. N.B.D.M., 
November 10. 

But the interest evinced by the public in 
this affair continued " increasing day by day," 
as the Glasgow-Weekly Mail (November 19th), 
puts it. Further inquiries have proved that 
a convict ship, the "Yaroslavl", is actually 
being built at Dumbarton. It is, however, 
alleged that it is an ordinary convict-ship for 
conveying common-law offenders from Odessa to 
Sakhalien, a sort of maritime " barge," similar 
to those described by Mr. George Kennan as 
journeying from Niztiny Novgorod to Perm, 
and from Tioumen to Tomsk, only cleaner and 
more comfortable. We are quite willing to 
believe that. But political prisoners are 
transported upon the Siberian and Volga 
" barges," described by Mr, Kennan, in separate 
cells, side by side with those of the common-law 
offenders. They never form more than a small 
proportion of the passengers. 

Now there is on Sakhalien a large and 
growing penitentiary colony for political 
offenders. They have all been transported to 
that terrible island in small batches by steamers 
from Odessa via Suez. The "Yaroslavl" is 
admittedly intended for such a service and will 
transport these political offenders. 

There is no shadow of doubt about that. It 
is quite immaterial from an ethical point of 
view whether the politicals will be few or many 
— the majority or the minority of the passengers. 
We therefore consider the communication of 
our correftpondent as fully confirmed. 



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FFtEE RUSSIA. 



Uecemter i, i^i. 



Russialn men, and perhaps women, the tlower 
faf their generation, — the same, the story of 
whose wrongs and whose unselfish devotion to 
their country's freedo'm moved to tears so many 
English readers of George Kennan's pages, will 
be dragged as slaves upon a deck that one 
moment was " English soil," During the 
several months of transit they will be kept in 
iron cages made by English hands. If, exaspe- 
rated by some brutahty of tiieir temporary 
gaolers — against which "electric fans" and 
good accommodation are no security— they 
should rebel or mutiny, jets of scalding steam 
v/ill be turned upon them ((here is always 
such "accommodation" upon convict ships) 
through special taps manufactured in English 
workshops. All these are facts for English 
people to think over. 

In an excellent paragraph upon this subject 
the London Daily Chronicle (Nov. 7) discusses 
the delicate question whether building slave 
ships for the Tzar " is or is not tike taking blood 
money ? " " During the last Russian scare," 
says the paper, " several firms of coal owners 
refused to coal Russian ships, and the) received 
much praise for their patriotism. And if one 
should not supply the enemies of one's country, 
what about supplying the enemies of humanity ? 
It is a curious point of ethical dialectics " — the 
paper concludes. 

It is upon this point that we want to 
say a few dispassionate words. We do not 
propose to start an agitation to prevent 
— supposing this possible — the building of such 
ships in English dockyards. Still less do we 
feel inclined to inveigh against Messrs Denny 
and Brothers, the builders, or their workmen, 
who, according to the Glasgow Weekly Mail, 
" instead of having any aversion to building 
such a steamer, would be only too pleased if 
their employers could obtain a number of 
similar vessels to build." 

It would have been an act of splendid 
philanlhropical heroism if any shipbuilder had 
refused to build or if the workers of some ship- 
yard had refused to work at a ship, on learning 
that it would serve to assist the Tzar in 
punishing the liberty-loving sons and daughters 
of Russia. But one can not claim from people 
heroism as a thing due, or feel bitterly against 
them if they do not show it. 

The fact that men of such high moral 
standard and eminence among their country- 
men as Dr. Spence Watson, Mr. Allanson 
Picton, the brothers Thompson, Miss Hesba 
Stretton, and many more, have given to the 
cause of Russian Freedom, their souls and 
their hearts, is for the Russian patriots an 
ample compensation for the scores of prison 
ships built in English yards. 

The mora! which we want to draw from the 
affair is this: the Russian government con- 
stantly receives help from outside, and help in 



3 much moxk si'bstahtial form than the CKie 
which gave rise to fhe present notice. The 
Dumbarton shipbuilders will help the T^ir in 
transporting his prisoners to their destination. 
But they will not in any way help the Tzar in 
capturing these prisoners, or in maintaining his 
tyranny over the millions of the Russian people, 
as is done by every foreign banker who sub- 
scribes to a Russian loan, and by every man 
who consents to buy from the banker a Russian 
security. Financial assistance is not the only 
help the Russian autocracy receives from 
western states, but we will speak only of it. 

Now is it possible to hope that the time will 
ever come when foreign bankers will refuse to 
subsidise the Tzar if they can realise high profits 
upon the loan, or that people will refuse to buy 
Russian bonds at the Stock Exchange, if they 
can "turn an honest penny" by the trans- 
action ? 

No, certainly not. The Russian government 
will be supported most powerfully up to the 
last possible moment by foreign capital. It 
would be hopeless to try and idle to hope, to 
help the Russian p>eople in a negative way, i.e., 
by cutting of! from their government that 
supply from without. Those who feel for the 
wrongs of the Russian people, and who are 
morally offended, hurt, indignant at the sight 
of any particular form of assistance given to 
the Russian autocracy, may show it in a positive 
way by working for the Russian emancipation. 
The supjMrt receive*! by the autocracy from 
abroad, stands as a supreme justification of — 
and ought to stand a peremptory stimulant for 
— such a work, the possibility of which has 
been demonstrated by our society. Join it, 
spread it, and assist it to the full measure of 
your power, and you will bring your mite, no 
matter how modest, to the efforts of tlie 
Russians themselves, to remove a government 
which the Daily Chrmicle has rightly stigmatised 
as an " enemy of humanity." S. Stepniak. 

We have mentioned above that the N. B. 
Daily Mail sent a correspondent to make 
inquiries about the building of a prison ship on 
the Clyde. Here is his humorous account : — 

" I went down to Chesham House, about 
mid-day. I walked through the two great 
iron gates into the court yard, but was 
rather forcibly reminded where I was by a big 
individual in livery, with a superfluity of 
powder on his pate and white gloves upon his 
hands, who clapped me on the shoulder and 
wanted to know my business. I told him that 
I wished to see any official who could give me 
some facts about the matter. He stared at me 
very hard for several seconds, and after order- 
ing me to 'Stand there I ' walked leisurely up to 
the entrance doors. I waited for some time, 
and was at last shown into the hall of Chesham 



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House — the seat of Russian authority in 
England. Some thiee or four more liveried 
servants — liveried almost to the fashion of 
a 'guy,' powdered and puffed, with brass 
buttons, fulls and buckled slippers — were loung- 
ing about, and all watched me closely as if I 
was going to run away with something. One 
of them shouted to me ' On the first floor.' What 
that meant I scarcely knew, but up I went. 
After going a few steps I was told to go 'on 
the next landing ; ' and again ' at the top of the 
third flight.' At last I was shown into a wait- 
ing-roam, wliicli was elaborately furnished, 
and contained a rather clever piece of machin- 
ery which at first sight looked likean instrument 
of torture, but was really a reading desk. A 
gentleman, who would net tell me his name, 
came in and asked me ' What I came for ?' I 
showed him the cutting from Frse Russia, and 
this is his reply. I give it as it was said to me : — 

"'Oh, no, no I tush, tush' we never heard 
anything of — but tush, tush, tush. I'm sorry you 
came up all these steps ; but really it is — well, 
nothing. No, no ; it's nothing," 

" ' But,' I said, ' is there any truth whatever 
in the statement ? Will you give me a denial 7' 

" ' Why did you not ask the shipping company 
at the Clyde ? Tush ; no, no ; I'm sorry — tush, 
tush. Good-day.' 

" I clambered down 'all those stairs,' won- 
dering what that gentle " Tush " that the official 
used so freely really meant. Webster does not 
define it. Can you, sir ? Afterwards I wrote 
to the Consul General for Russia, but he only 
' regretted to be unable to give ' roe the informa- 
tion I wanted." 

The paper continues i — 

An exhaustive inquiry at all the yards in the 
upper reaches of the Clyde on Wednesday 
failed to elicit any confirmation of the above 
report ; but the result of our reporter's visit to 
DiimLaiton on Thursday placed the fact beyond 
dispute [hat a steamship, specially designed 
and intended for the conveyance of convicts, 
and contracted for by the Russian government, 
is now on the stocks in the yard of Messrs. 
Denny at Dumbarton. 

There is nothing about her outward appear- 
ance to suggest the gruesome business for which 
she is bemg constructed. Indeed, external 
appearances would lead anyone looking at her 
to put the vessel down as an ordinary respec- 
table, possibly commonplace, ocean-going 
steamer of about 6,000 tons. She has what 
the experts in nautical matters would call a 
figurehead or fiddle bow, and although not 
supposed to go very fast, is provided with a 
twin screw, not, however, of very much power. 
In the upper deck the vessel is got up in 
something like the manner of the ordinary class 
of ship, and it is only below that the real nature 
of the craft is revealed. 



There, in the lower deck and under the 
lower deck, the spacious accommodation is all 
divided off into cells. These cells, it is quite 
apparent, are very nutuerous, for alarge number 
of barred iron doors are being provided for 
them. As described to us, the doors resemble 
gates made of flat iron, and ribbed with tubes 
about I inch in diameter, and about 5 or 6 
inches apart. " I don't think there's any 
accomodation in her foe first-class passengers," 
said one of our informers ; " but there is no 
doubt she is intended for carrying convicts 
from one place to another — wherever thej/ are 
going to employ them. Whether she is to 
carry anything else but convicts, or to engage 
in any other traffic, I can't say.'' It further 
appears that it is no secret in the town of 
Dumbarton that the ship in course of construc- 
tion is destined for service as a convict ship by 
the Russian government. The work is so far 
advanced that the ship will be launched in the 
course of a fortnight or so, and the people 
have all along regarded the matter with indiffer- 
ence, or as they would the acceptance by any 
builder of a contract for the building of a 
prison. 



'"'' T/te New Exodus." 

By Harold Frederic {W. Heinemann, 189a). 
rilHG subject of Mr. Frederic's book is the 
-'- barbarities practised on the Jews in Russia 
— their forced migration from cities outside the 
pale of settlement to that territory, and the 
flight of something like a quarter of a million 
souls from the land of their birth to other 
countries unpolluted by thb hideous cruelties 
practised upon them. 

Mr. Frederic has himself gathered in Russia 
recent information on the subject, and his theme 
is accordingly treated with a good deal of 
authenticated detail. 

The story is strikingly atrocious even to those 
who are accustomed to hear of the dealings of the 
Russian government with those who are offen- 
sive to tnem, but its main features are those 
with which we have become familiarised — 
fearful barbarities committed by officials in the 
name of a government entirely unable to restrain 
them even If it were inclined to do so, suscepti- 
ble of mitigation by one means alone— corrup- 
tion. No author has given instances of the 
hideous corruption that pervades the Russian 
bureaucracy more overwhelming than will be 
found in this book, which proves, moreover, 
once again how completely powerless to check 
the evils done in his name is the fountain-head 
of authority, the Tzar. 

The passage in which this is best brought 
out occurs in a character- sketch of Alexander 
III., one of several of the most prominent 
personalities of the Russia of to-day, contained 



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In this volume. Mr. Frederic certainly has 
the knack of character-portraiture, and his 
portrayals impress one as being reliable as well 
as vivid. 

"Alexander III.," says the author, "is a 
man of rather limited mental endowments and 
acquirements, who does not easily see more 
than one thing at a time, and who gets to see 
ihat slowly. . , . He has no idea of system 
and no executive talent. He would not be 
selected to manage the affairs of a village if he 
were an ordinary citizen. It is the very iiony 
of fate that he has been made responsible for 
the management of half a million villages. He 
has an abiding sense of the sacrcdness of this 
responsibility, and he toils assiduously over the 
Usk as it is given liim to comprehend it. Save 
for brief periods of holiday-making with his 
family, he works till two or three in the morn- 
ing examining papers, reading suggestions and 
signing papers. No man in the empire is 
busier than he. The misery of it is that all 
this irksome labour is of no use whatever. So 
far as the real government of Russia is con- 
cerned, he might as well be employed in wheel- 
ing bricks from one end of a yard to the other 
and then back again. Even when one tries to 
realise what ' Russian government ' is like — 
with its vast bureaucracy essaying ihe stupen- 
dous task of maintaining an absolute personal 
supervision over every individual human unit 
in a mass of a hundred millions, and that 
through the least capable and most uniformly 
corrupt agents to be found in the world — the 
mind cannot grasp the utter hopelei^sness of it 
all. The ablest man ever born of woman could 
do next to nothing with it ; at least, until he 
had cleared the ground by slaying some scores 
of thousands of officials. Alexander HI. 
simplji struggles on at one little corner of the 
towermg pyramid of routine business which his 
ministers pile up before him. Compared with 
him, Sisyphus was a gentleman of leisure. 

"This slow-minded, mercilessly -burdened 
man knows very Httle cither of the events close 
about him or of the broader currents of con- 
temporaneous history outside. He had the 
customary elaborate education from which 
most princes mysteriously manage to extract 
50 little benefit, and lie seems to have got less 
of it than usual. He was a man grown before 
his elder brother's death pushed him forward 
as heir to the throne. A belated effort was 
then made to engraft upon his weak and 
spindling tree of knowledge some of the special 
fruits of learnmg which a future emperor should 
possess. He was docile and good. Some of 
his teachers established a powerful personal 
inSueoce over him, the effects of which were 
afterwards to be of such terrible moment, but 
they accomplished little else." 

Mr. Frederic's character- sketch of the Grand 
Duke Sergius will be of special interest to 



English people just now, as telhng them the 
kind of personage that is being received as 
their State visitor. 

Our author's contribution to the story of 
modern Russia's misery is a specially dark one, 
and what makes the book even sadder reading 
than those of Kennan or Stepniak, is that he 
seems to have no confidence in the Russian 
people's eventually asserting itself and taking 
its place amongst the happier nations of 
Western Europe. His description of the 
Russian peasant — the moujik — is in sordid 
contrast with the idealisation of the same 
personage fostered by Count Leo Tolstoi— and 
also by some of the Russian socialists. The 
description of Mr. Frederic's moujik is, no 
doubt, founded on facts which he has himself 
observed We are not for the first time con- 
fronted with the contrast between the realistic 
and the idealistic description of a nationality 
or of a class. Whether it be about the Celts 
of Ireland or of Wales, the negroes of America, 
the labourers of England, or the peasants of 
Russia, when it comes to an enumeration of 
sheer facts, the realist seems to carry things 
before him. But, after all, the position of the 
idealist is not shown to be so untenable as 
might at first sight appear to be the case. 
Indeed his conception is actually revealed from 
time to time, io bright exceptional characters 
which stand forth to measure the height to 
which their comrades may some day attain. 
Insight into the possibilities of attainment is of 
the greatest importance when we are looking 
forward to the future development of a people 
or a class. Probably Mr. Frederic himself 
would be the first to acknowledge this when it 
was a question concerning the Jews. In one 
passage he speaks ofthem as being "legislated" 
. . . " back into the vicious old circle of 
being forced to do certain things and then hated 
and abused because they did them." Is it not 
possible that in the case of the moujik also his 
environment is responsible for many of his 
undesirable qualities ? 

We may, perhaps, not feel bound to accept 
Mr. Frederic's view of the peasant as decisive. 
It resembles in its sombreness that of Mc. 
Lanin. The two writers are alike in regarding 
the moujik not only as very debased, but as 
degenerate even from the standard of pre-emanci- 
pation times. Perhaps they do not lay Etress 
enough on the importance of the symptoms 
here and there to be found amongst the peasant 
class of the seeking after higher things. Of 
this the Stundist movement is a remarkable 
instance in point. Hbkbbrt M. Thompson. 



During December F. Volkhovsky will lecture— On 
the 11th in Leicester, on the 14th in Inverness, on 
the iSth in the Coliseum at Leeds, and, very likely, 
on his way northwards or back, will addressabrancb 
meeting in Edinbui^h. 



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The Russian Peasants and 
their Detractors & Pane- 
gyrists. 

•JIHERE is a iroint in Mr. Herbert Thompson's 
article wliich is worth special notice, 
on account of its general interest, mdepen.lently 
oi tlie book to which it refers. As to the Iwok 
ilself, ihere is little to be added to the remarks 
of our contributor. Mr. Harold Frederic's 
book \% certainly an important contribution to 
the literature of the Russian question. It gives 
more than it promises, and it has a permanent 
interest which we are not accustomed lo 
associate with tourists' productions. As an 
exhaustive, graphic and perfectly accurate ac- 
count of Jewish legislation in Russia, and of the 
past history and present position of this race 
in the empire, it is unique of its kind and may 
^rvc as a good book of reference even for a 
Russian. The author's comprehension and 
characterisation of the Russian bureaucratic 
despotism— the most salient feature of our 
present pohtica! system— is, as Mr, Thompson 
truly says, as good as can be found in English 
hterature. The book would be an unimpeach- 
able one if the author had remembered the first 
sentence of his own book. 

"Edmund Burke confessed, over a century 
ago," thus opens chapter I., "that he knew 
not the method of drawing up an indictment 
against a whole people." Mr. Harold Frederic 
lias learned that method as early as chapter 
III., wilh which begins an indictment against 
the Russian people which, to say the least, is 
the counterpart of Madame "O.K.'s" indict- 
ment against the jews. Besides its philosophical 
inconsistency, it strikes the reader by a number 
of gross blunders which form a strange contrast 
to the carefulness and accuracy of other parts 
of the work. 

For a foreigner going for a short trip to an 
entirely new country, it is absolutely necessary 
to apply to some of^ the natives for information 
and guidance. Most of the English travellers, 
like Dr. Lansdell, Mr. Henry de Windt and Mr. 
W. Stead applied to officials, and paid the 
penally for doing so. But their description of 
Russian peasants is more true to the original : 
the officials had no reason to hate their humbler 
countrymen. Mr. Harold Frederic went to 
the Jews, who were able to give him a complete 
account of administrative despotism. But their 
description of the Russian peasants resulted, as 
was natural, in a most pitiful caricature. 

I will not proceed in the easy task of refuting 
Mr, Harold Frederic's misstatements upon 
this score, for I want to say a few words at 
least upon the interesting point raised by Mr. 
Thompson himself. 

There are two sort of pictures of tl.e Russian 



peasants, almost diametrically opposed to each 
other. Whilst some persons will proclaim the 
Russian peasants to be besotted savages, 
utterly unfit for civilisation, others will assert, 
on the contrary, that the Russian peasants, 
owing to peculiar historical and economic 
conditions, have developed qualities that fit 
them to evolve the highest forms of social life. 

Which of these pictures is the true one 7 Mr. 
TliompsoQ is puzzled, au 1 tries liard— 1 will 
not say to reconcile th^m, for ih^t is impossible 
— but to explain how men, obacrviug the same 
subject, could have come to such contradictory 
conclusions. Now, if Mr. Thompson is per- 
plexed, readers with less pronounced sympathies 
will be still more so. 

Personally 1 am rather a partisan of the 
enthusiastic view of the potentialities of our 
peasantry. But I can very well put myself in 
the position of an impartial outsider, and 1 
would say to Mr. Thompson and all those who 
feel puzzled before the two confliciing pictures : 
Dismiss them both if you like, and stick to the 
plain and secure axiom tliat men by nature are 
pretty much tlie same everywhere. There is 
much of the savage in the Russian peasants. 
Granted. But are not the peasants of other 
nations savages as well ? The testimony of 
novelists is the most important in deciding this 
question, because they alone paint for us men 
in their completeness. 

Let us take the novelists who have given us 
types of common English farm labourers, male 
and female. Take George Oliot. Do not the 
farm labourers represented in " Adam Bede" 
partake more of the nature of oxen than of 
men ? And the rural heioes and heroines of the 
admirable little story oI Mrs. Margaret Woods, 
" A Village Tragedy," are they any better ? 

Now let us pass to the continent, and Cake for 
guides Balzac's " Les Paysans" or Emile 
Zola's masterpiece " La Terre" ; are not the 
French peasants we meet Ihere a low race of 
cruel, egotistic savages, wallowing in loathsome 
vices ? It is difficult to imagine anything less 
promising as a material for civilisation. 
Giovanni Verga's Italian peasants are just as 
bad. And yet all that the civilisation of these 
countries has produced has come oritjinally 
from the soil, from these savages, whom the 
cities have transformed into fully developed 
men and citizens. Why should we not extend 
ttie same hopefulness to Russian peasants ? 
S. Stepniak. 



Traits of the Russian Court. 

IV E have received from our St. Petersburg 
correspondent a very interesting com- 
munication abour the history of the Novo 
Znamensky villa, which we particularly recom- 
mend to Mr. W. Stead, for it offers a striking 



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December i, 1892. 



though somewhat queer illustration ot the 
much -ex tolled parental kindness of (he impe- 
rial couple. We shall be very reticent and 
omit all strictly personal details of this scanda- 
lous story; the private affairs of the Tzar's 
family are of no interest for us. But when 
paternal connivance at a son's peccadilloes 
leads lo the embezzlement of public money and 
to the robbing of afflicted invalids, tlien it 
becomes an offence against the common weal. 
The Empress Maria Alexandrovna (wife of 
the late Emperor), who was a great philan- 
thropist, bequeathed a capital of ;^ioo,ooo 
(we will use the English equivalents for all 
Russian values) to be spent in founding a 
free hospital for the poor. In 1883 a special 
commission was appointed to decide upon a 
practical plan for carrying out the trust. It 
was composed of the leading practitioners and 
medical authorities of St. Petersburg, including 
the late Professor Botkin, Professor Eichwald, 
and others. The commission decided upon the 
plan of building a model hospital for pulmonary 
diseases. But they could not agree upon the 
choice of the locality. Some of the members 

Proposed the Crimea, others the province of 
odolia, others again suggested St. Petersburg. 
These various projects were submitted lo the 
Emperor, but none of the three received the 
imperial sanction. The affair dragged on for 
five years. In 1888, the Tzar Alexander III, 
resolved to hand over this capital, with the 
accumulated interest— ^140,000 in all— to the 
committee in charge of the Russian institutions 
for the blind. 

This imperial favour to the blind was 
reported, we may remark by the way, by 
K. K. Grot, the Russian delegate, at the 
international Congress of the representativts of 
European institutions for the blind (which was 
held in that year in Cologne), and the Congress 
sent to the Tzar a telegram, couched in most 
respectful and enthusiastic terms, expressing 
its gratitude for such benevolence to the bHnd. 

The subsequent history of a considerable 
part of this sum is worth telling, for it may 
interest not only the blind, but also those who 
have eves to see. 

Whilst communicating lo Mr. Grot the 
Tzar's decision to transfer his mother's gift 
from the consumptives to the blind, the Empress 
expressed a desire that £"30,000 of the sum 
should be immediately spent in buying a villa 
called Novo Znamensky, the property of a 
Mr. Miatlev, situated near St. Petersburg, on 
the road to Peterhov. This villa was to be 
bought with the object of transforming it into 
a blind hospital. Mr. Grot went to visit the 
villa, and then, in an audience with the 
Empress, informed her that the estate was not 
worth half the sum demanded by the owner, 
and that it could hardly be used as an institu- 
tion for the blind. But the Empress stopped 



his arguments by telling him " with her heavenly 
smile" that the ^ffiir was already settled, and 
that slie had promi^d to Mi. Miatlev precisely 
the sum named. 

There was a love-story behind this trans- 
action (in which the Tzarevich was concerned), 
to account for the imperial solicitude for Mr- 
Miatlev's pecuniary mterest. We need not 
dwell upon that. 

The estate was bought, and the ^£"30,000 
were paid lo Mr. Miatlev in full. But when 
the coinmitiee of trustees came to take pos- 
session of the property, they discovered that 
instead of the costly furniture which had been 
there, the house was filled with broken and 
utterly worthless rubbish. On making inquiries 
among the neighbours, they learned that on the 
preceding day the solicitous owner had come 
with 40 vans and taken away all the furniture, 
which, by the agreement, he was bound to give 
up, and had put instead of it the furniture they 
found, which he had bought for a low price 
at the second-hand furniture shops of the 
Shchoukin market. Only two things, a large 
billiard table, and an enormous vase in the 
garden were left behind because their size 
prevented him from carrying them away. 
These two valuable pieces of furniture, which 
however, were of httle use to the blind, were 
left in the possession of the committee. 

Having acquired a property which was 
utterly useless to them, the committee came 
to the couclusion that the best, or at any rate, 
the least ruinous thing for them to do was to 
get rid of the estate as quickly as possible. The 
house was not worth mtich, but there were 
320 acres of land, which could fetch a good 
price, being near the capital. The estate was 
accordingly put up lo sale at the price of 
£"10,000, i.e., at one-third of what had been 
paid for it. But for several years none would 
buy it even at that price. 

At last an offer was made. The St. Peters- 
burg municipality wanted a site for a new 
lunatic asylum. After some bargaining the 
municipality acquired the estate for the sum of 
/g.ooo. But when the estate was measured it 
was discovered that it contained only 160 
acres. Of course it was not the committee 
which had cheated the municipality. It was 
soon found out that the provident Mr. 
Miatlev, had not only defrauded them upon the 
furniture, but upon the land as well. By some 
underhand way he had succeeded in getting 
from the surveying department an old map of 
the estate, drawn up in 1805, and had concealed 
from the committee the fact that in 1840 one- 
half of the estate was sold. The committee of 
institutions for the blind did not verify the 
measure of the jctual size of the estate, and in 
fact would hardly have protested against the 
fraud if it had found out the truth. 

But the municipality was in a better position, 



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anJ the matter was discussed at a silling of the 
D.iHTia. The nature of the former Irjnsiciion 
was known to all present, and llic deliates vtexe. 
remarkably lame and reticent. In view of tlie 
fact lliat such high-placed perwinages were 
connected with the affair, some nicmlit-rs of the 
niiinicipality were in favour of dropping the 
matter and losing one-hatf of the money paid. 
But the majority had courage enouRh to protest 
against such treatment of public funds. No 
one dared to suggest that the affair be brought 
before a court of law. But a resolution was 
passed to send in a memorial to the Tzar con- 
cerning the fraud which had been practised 
upon the town. The memorial was sent in, 
but the municipality got neither redress nor 
reply. 

The story speaks for itself, and we vouch for 
its perfect authenticity, for we have received i 
from a most reliable source. 



Branch-woik. 
I. 

What can and what should a branch of the 
Society of Friends of Russian Freedom do to 
promote the movement it represents ? — such is 
the burning question of our organisation, and 
it is time to answer it, as practically as we can. 

The Brst and most important function of 
every branch is, certainly, to enlist as many 
members in the ranks of the S.F.H.F. as is 
possible, and to supply them with the sinews 
of every organisation, without which no woik 
can be carried on — with money. But next to 
that there is a vast field for the most various 
and useful activity of a branch. 

Our Society has at present one main prob- 
lem before it : — to disseminate authentic, 
genuine mformation about Russia, tending to 
arouse public feeling and public opinion against 
the present Russian misrule, and in favour of 
its being replaced in some way or other by a 
popular, representative government, based on 
liberty and justice. 

A large circulation of a special literature, its 
introduction into libraries, clubs and various 
societies throughout the United Kingdom and 
the colonies ; the introduction of Russian topics 
into the London and provincial press, and the 
arrangement of lectures and debates on Russian 
questions, and also of "indignation meetings" 
now and thin when any shameful practices of 
Russian officialdom chance to come to light 
through (he press ; such is the practical 
interpretation of our first problem. It is easy 
to see that without the energetic collaboration 
and, to some extent, even initiative of provincial 
pwople this work cannot be carried on properly. 

The Society publishes a monthly paper and 
different pamphlets. The branches ought to 
and could assist it vigorously in both. Frbe 



Russia cannot properly combat the erroneous 
views concerning Russian affairs circulating in 
England, nor give exactly tht information 
wanted, 'if its readers, especially the Branch 
Committees, do not send in their share of 
information and suggestions upon the matter, 
or do not raise questions upon any points that 
are not clear to them. The branches could 
also easily contribute a good deal to making 
our paper as interesting and lively as possible. 
We know, for example, that witiiin the reach 
of the Edinburgh branch live two gentlemen: 
the Rev. Prof. A. F. Simpson, and the Rev. 
Dr. John C. Brown ; both of whom, having 
been at different periods ministers to the 
Anglo American colony in St. Petersburg, 
could contribute most interesting reminiscences 
and other information upon Russia. Men who 
have been in Russia and have something to 
say about it are certainly to be found in many 
other places, and one of the problems of the 
branches should be to find them out and either 
to interview them or to induce them to write 
for Frbe Russia. 

Nowadays the provincial press not unfrc- 
quently inserts original and very interesting 
articles on Russian questions, or news from 
Russia, which, in the interest of the movement, 
should be either spread further or contradicted 
and opposed. For an example we need only 
point to the Mattckesttr Guardiait and the Ntiv- 
caslU Daily Chronicle. Now, people living in 
provincial places could easily make useful 
cuttings from their local press and send them 
to Free Russia (3, IfHey Road, Haminersiiiith, 
London, W.) The branches (and individual 
Friends of Russian Freedom) should also 
watch all the kctures, meetings, and other 
events in the locality {such, for example, as 
the construction of Russian floating prisons on 
the Clyde) and report them to Free Russia. 

Free Russia is, however, not only a literary 
monthly paper, but also the organ of the 
organisation called the Society of Friends of 
Russian Freedom, and, as such, it must con- 
centrate all the news and suggestions concerning 
organisation and agitation about ftussian affairs. 
All such notes or other matter intended to 
appear in the next number ought to reach the 
Staff not later than the 20th of every month. 
But besides occasional notes the branches might 
send in to London regular accounts of the work 
done and the money collected and expended, 
to be read at the meetings of the Executive 
Committee (which occur on the first Wednesday 
of every month), and, if necessary, to be printed 
in Free Russia in extract or in full. Such 
communications would very much encourage, 
we are sure, the work everywhere. It is 
hardly possible to work in a desert (though 
among people, where no sound of any comrade 
is to be heard, no token of the efibcts made or 
the prepress effected is to be seen I Experience 



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December i, 1892. 



shows that the pamphlets issued by our society 
are of great use. Being independent of the 
necessity of not exceeding the limits of a news- 
paper article, they can treat the subject chosen 
more fully than can be done in one number of 
Free Russia, and they are more readily pre- 
served than a monthly copy of a small periodical. 
They always have a good sale at lectures and 
meetings, and thus bring in a little profit to the 
funds of ihe society, as their prices are calcu- 
lated to somewhat exceed their expenses. A 
good portion of the matter contained in Free 
Russia during (he 2^ years of its existence 
could and should be compiled, remodelled and 
published in pamphlet form, thus saving useful 
things from oblivion. This work could lie done 
as well in some branch as in London, by any 
English amateur scholar of the Russian 
question. And if some branch should feel 
inclined to enter upon pubhshing on its own 
account, it could even print such compiled or 
original pamphlets, after their revision by the 
London Executive Committee. Of course they 
would be circulated by and prove useful for 
the whole S.F.R.F. 

The amateur scholar above mentioned is a 
person upon whom many hopes may be built, 
It is he, or she, that is to popularise in the 
local press matter contained either in the latest 
number of Free Russia, or in a new pamphlet, 
or got from standard liooks on the Russian 
question ; such as G. Kennan's " Siberia and 
the Exile System," Leroy-Beaulieu's "L'empiie 
des Tzars," Stepniak's "Russian Peasantry" 
and " Russia under the Tzars," E. Noble's 
" The Russian Revolt," and the like. The 
literature about Russia in the English language 
alone is nowadays of considerable size, not to 
mention the French and German books; and the 
short " Bibliography," published by the society 
(to be had from the secretary for 1 Jd. post free), 
though far from being complete, can help sucli 
a scholar in his studies. The popularisation of 
the information gathered from standard works 
OD Russia is a great thing, and it is the same 
hypothetical amateur scholar who must be 
expected to do it in the form of lectures ior his 
or her locality. This is the right way to give 
to our propaganda a wide influence. Mrs- 
Mallet's brilliant success proves it most posi- 
tively. By the way, lime-light illustrations for 
lectures on Russian subjects are very desirable, 
as they greatly help an average English audience 
to realise what Russian life is like, and are also 
an additional attraction. 

The lectures can be given not only as a means 
of propaganda, but also as a means of obtaining 
the funds necessary for the work of the society. 
Experience has taught us that the best arrange- 
ment in that line is as follows: — The branch, 
or simply an energetic individual Friend of 
Russian Freedom (as was the case, for example, 
in Bedford, Alloa, Burnley, York, etc.) gets a 



few sympathisers to guarantee the expenses of 
the hall, lighting and advertising, and also the 
expenses of the lecturer's journey and night's 
lodging. They make a charge for admission, 
and, after having defrayed the exp*nses, send 
the net proceeds, if any, to the Hon. Treasurer 
of the i* riends of Russian Freedom. During 
the winter-season ot 1890-91 the society derived 
from lectures arranged in this way and delivered 
by one lecturer only— F. Volkhovsky — about 
£"80. As we have nOw several lecturers for the 
society besides Volkhovsky and Stepniak (see 
list in the present number), lecturing on this 
basis can be carried on slill more successfully 
and on a larger scale, provided only that the 
branches and individual sympathisers with 
the cause of liberty show some energy and 
organising skill. 

(To be conlmued.) 



Reviews. 

" Queer Stories from Russia," by Capbl 
Chernilo (James Clarke and Co., 13 and 14. 
Fleet Street). 
TTTE hail the appearance in England ol a 
' ' new and delightful writer upon Russia. 
Capel Chernilo (which means in Russian "a 
drop of ink ") is the pseudonym of an author 
who, according to the internal evidence afforded 
by the bouk, must be a young man of English 
extraction, born or educated in the south- 
western region of Russia, where he has become 
imbued with the love of the country and its 
people and a poetical insight into the Russian 
character, and even acquired that sober sim- 
plicity and delicacy of style which we are 
accustomed to admire in the sketches of tlie 
best among our young writers. The book is a 
collection of short sketches, evidently taken 
from life. In most of them the scene is laid 
among the Stundists, the Russian Protestants 
of the Baptist branch. These are the best of 
the series. They tell in a simple, pathetic and 
truly artistic way of the spiritual troubles, 
adventures and experiences of these pioneers 
of Russian Protestantism. We see before us 
living men, and we are made spectators of 
excitmg or touching adventures. The short 
stories of this series, entitled "A Sonnet on 
Official Paper," " Piotr Vorob," and " Osip 
Starichok" aresraall masterpieces in their way. 
The last may serve as a sample from the bulk : 
Its hero, though one of the retired Sebastopol 
heroes, does not look like a hero at all. "He 
was of rather ignoble stature — very spare 
and sharp and weakly ; but his eyes were quick, 
and his eager soul seemed to make his frail 
body instinct with movement and fire." When 
young he was a wild, " harum-scarum," quar- 
relsome fellow. But the terrible tragedy 
of the war somehow sobered him down. He 



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December i, 1892, 



FREE RUSSIA. 



became a good soldier. His colonel was a 
noble-hearted gentleman, and every man in the 
regiment adored him. " So when a shell fell 
near him it was thought not mtich of a wonder 
that Osip should rush forward to tear away the 
burning fuse." He lost his hand, and this put 
ao end to all his soldiering. He retired to the 
village, married the girl whom he loved, and 
was soon left a widower with a little daughter, 
in whom all his soul was wrapt up. The 
daughter runs away with a lover, who forsakes 
her. Weary years of loneliness come upon the 
broken-hearted Osip, who is advised to seek 
relief foe his sorrows at the holy shrines of the 
saints at Kiev, There he gets a copy of the 
Gospel and is converted to the simple faith of 
the Slundists. His grief is calmed, but he 
prays that his heavily-laden Vera may be 
comforted too. He goes to Moscow, and by a 
stroke of fortune meets her, though in utter 
degradation. He brings her back, converted, 
to the village, where she is received with the 
meek forgiveness so characteristic of the Russian 
peasants. They both end by becoming Stundist 
teachers. There are other sketches and stories 
in which " politics" play the leading part, such 
as : " Two Acts of a Drama," and others. But 
although sympathetic as to the idea they are 
not so good artistically. To sum up : For a 
long time we have not come across so unpre- 
tentious, charming and refreshing a book as 
this, and we hope to see something more from 

the same pen. 

" FitoM Siberian Lead Mines." Unpublished 
letters of a Russian Professor, Vasily 
Yaksakov, condemned to penal servitude for 
life, with the portrait and autograph of the 
condemned. Berlin : Siegfried Cronbach, 
1892 (in German). 
" Ti^ defend me from my friends, — from 
-*-' my enemies I can defend myself." But 
how about enemies who take the outward 
appearance of friends ? The above-named 
book has been quoted copiously by tlie 
English papers, and it is exciting enough for 
that. It contains a story of the wholesale 
flinging to death of men and women, of 
working in underground galleries from which 
the chained convicts do not emeige to 
the light of day for months. It tells of 
an attempted escape ; of the killing of 
a sentinel, and no end of blood curdhng 
horrors. Now, all this is a gross fabrication 
from beginning to end. There can be no doubt 
about the matter. The supposed martyr never 
lived, the adventures described never occurred. 
The autograph (in Latin ! the authors probably 
not knowing Russian), pictures,— all are nothing 
but a shameless speculation upon the sympathy 
with Siberian exUes which the translation of 
Mr. Kennan's work has created in Germany. 
Let us hope this production will never appear 
io an Engli&h dress. Ed. 



Lecture List. 



the following liat have, with the approva 
Executive Committee, consented to lecture grath on 
the subjects opposite their names, uuder the auspices 
of the Society of-Friends of Russian Freedom. 
Clubs, associations, societies and similar institutions, 
or sympathisers with Russian Freedom, deeiroue of 
securing the services of any of these ladies or gentle- 
men should communicate with the lecturer direct. 
J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, iSa, Goldhu rat-terrace, 
South Hampstead, N.W. Subject: " The Preseut 
State of Russia." 
Mrs. Mallet, Albemarle Club, Allwmarle -street, 
Piccadilly, W. (not on Thursday or Friday). 
Single Lecture : " Russia and her People." Three 
Lectures: " Russia and Siberia (i) Geography 
and Climate ; " (2) " Early History ; " (3) " Late 
History." " Land System — Present Condition — 
The Mir, the Commune." Three Lectures : 
"Russian Martyrs:" (i) "The Peasants;" (i) 
" Administrative Exiles ; " (3) " The Stundists." 
A Course of Nine Lectures, devoting two to the 
subject of Administrative Exiles. 
E. R. Pease, 376, Strand, W.C. SubjecU: "The 
Story of Russian Nihilism." " England's Interest 
in Russian Revolution." 
G. H. Perris, 115, Fleet-street, E.G. Subjects: 
" Russia's Place in Modern Europe." " The 
ftrioHK^Jof the Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
" The Episode of the ' Terror." " " The Coming 
Crash in Russia." 
Miss Ada Radford, i, South Hill Avenue, Harrow. 
Subjects : " Russian Freedom." " The Russian 
Revolution." 
H. Roberts, care of Free Russia, 3, IfHey-road, 
Hammersmith, W. Subjects : " The Russian 
Nihilist Movement." " The Russian Peasant and 
his Future." 
George Standring, 7, Finsbury -street, E.G. Sub- 
ject : " The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
Sergr's Stepkiak and Felix Volkhovsky are also 
prepared to enter into engagements to lecture. 
Terms on application. 

William W. Mackenzie, Hon. Sec. 



Meetings. 

Executive Gommittee.— The monthly meeting 
was held on the 2nd of November. Present, Dr. 
Spence Watson (in the chair). Mr Allansoo Picton, 
M.P., Mr. Fisher Unwin, Mr. H. M. Thompson, Mr. 
William Thompson, Mr. Pease, Mr. Perris, Mr. Rix, 
Mr. Mackenzie, Mrs. Mallet, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. 
Voynich. The Hon. Treasurer reported a debit 
balance of ^64. It was resolved to hold the annual 
general and public meeting on the 6th December ; 
Mr. Fisher Unwin, Mr. Perris, Mr. Pease, Mrs, 
Voynicli, and Mr. Mackenzie were appointed a sub- 
committee to make arrangements. Other business 
was transacted and the meeting adjourned. 

Bermondsev. — Mrs. Mallet delivered a Stirring 
address on " Russia and her Martyrs" at the Ber- 
mondsey Gladstone (Workman's) Club, on the 
evening of the 20th ult. The lecturer was well 
received, A large quantity of the society's literature 
was distributed at the meeting. 

Bexlev HtATM (Kent).— On November loth F. 
Volkhovsky addressed a Bexley Heath audience 
under the auspices of the local Free Lecture Society. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1892 



The Public Hall, holding 550 to 600 people was full. 
and the audience was exceedingly attentive. Kev. 
Laurence Fry presided. After the lecture on Exile 
Ijife in Siberia, a lively sate of F.R.F. literature was 
carried on from the platform, and two ladies (Mrs. 
Gill and another) enlisted themselves as members of 
our Society. 

Birmingham.— The beautiful hall of the Midland 
and Birmingham Institute, holding i,ooo seats waf 
packed on the2ist ult., when Mr. Volkhovsky told 
the story of his of his experiences as a "political." 
The platform was occupied by Mr. William Harris, 
Councillor Marlineau. Dr. Showell Rogers, Messrs. 
C. A. Harrison, Whitwarth Wallis, AlfreJ Hayes, 
and many ladies. At the close of the lecture our 
literature was sold to the amount of £1 loi. The 
amount of some of our pamphlets on sale proved 
insufficient to meet the demand for them, and many 
of the audience took notes of their titles; in or Jer to 
get them from our hon. secretary. 

Croydon. — On Monday, the 14th November. Mrs. 
Charles Mallet, as representing the Sscietyof Friends 
of Russian Freedom, delivered a lecture on " Russia 
and her People," at a meeting of the Croydo 



animated discussion followed Mrs. Mallet's 
and much interest was expressed in the subject. 

Edinhukgh. — A meeting of the Edinburgh Branch 
Committee was held in the afternoon of the i6th 
nit., in the Bible Society Rooms, to discuss the 
question : What could that brancli do to proniote the 
pro. Russian movement in the locality. The two 
main points that were subjected to the attention of 
those present were tne condition of our orgin — 
financially and otherwise — and the approaching 
annual meeting of our Society in London. The 
wish was expressed that the branch shonld make some 
special efforts to clear off arrears of subscriptions to 
our treasury which occurred at the time of the 
general election, when, very naturally, people were 
utterly and exclusively absorI>ed in their own alTairs, 
and also that the branch should keep more close 
connection with the centre, and contribute matter 
to Fhee Russia, Concerning the annual meeting, 
a suggestion was made to have the branch repre- 
sented at it in some way or other. On this occasion 
Mr. James Clark made a contribution to the funds 
of the Society, and expressed the wish to have some 
back numl>ers of Free Russia for free distri'mtion 
among the Edinburgh workmen, while Misses 



Josephine and Anna Marshall, to whose activity in 
Edinburgh our society owes so much, promised to 
make new efforts to enlist more members in its ranks. 
A decision was made that another meeting of the 
branch should be convened as soon as possible, and 
its hon. secretary, Mr. D. W. Wallace, S.S.C. (53, 
George IV. Bridge. Edinburgh), promised to do 
everything in his power to have it soon and well 
attended. 

Gateshead (near Newcastle- on -Tyne). — On 
Saturday, the izlh ult.. a meeting was held at the 
ho:seofour President and hon. treasurer. Dr. R. 
Spence Watson, to hear Mr. V. Volkhovsky's account 
ol his escape. The collection resulted in ^893., of 
which £i have already been made use of to assist 
a Russian political suspect in his escape. 

Haddington (N.B.)— On Thursday, i7lh ult., Mr. 
r. Volkhovsky addressed a meeting in Carlyle House, 
convened by MissT. C. Simpson, on his personal 
experiences. Mr. Dods, Mr. Ferme, Canon Wangh, 
Mr. John C. Brown, D.D., and many others atteode J, 
Miss T. Simpson being in the chair. Dr. Brown, 
formerly minister of the Anglo-American Church in 
St. Petersburg, then addressed the audience. A 
collection on behalf ot the Society was made. 

Hawick (Roxburgh). — F. Volkhovsky lectured on 
the 14th ult. to about 500 persons in a full hall, on 
his escape from Siberia. The Rev. D. Cathals 
M. A., presided. Our literature was sold for ^1 los 
The net proceeds of the lecture will be sent to oui 
hon. treasurer. 

Kensington.— Mrs. Chas. Matlett lectured on thi 
i6lh ult., at Christ Church parish. room, on" Russia 
her prisons and patriots, and the perils of escaped 
ronvicts." There was a large audience, and Mr, F, 
C. Frye, M.P., presided. Oxy-hydrogen illustrations 

Newcastle-on-Tvne,— On the i3thult., F. Volk- 
hovsky lectured to the Tyneside Sunday Le 
Society in the Tyneside Theatre, which was 
The text was; " How I escaped to Freedom," 
Mr. Ralph Young was chairman. 

The hon. secretary of the S.F.R.F. (W, 
Mackenzie, 24, Redchffe -gardens, South Kensington, 
S.W.) would feel obliged if persons lecturing or 
Russian topics — whether for the S.F.R.F. or other- 
wise— would kiudly inform him beforehand of the 
place, time, and subject of their lecUires for 
nouncement in Free Russia, and also send 
accounts of them after deUvery. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF 

Farther List of Sabsoriptions of 2a 6(1. and m 



Per Mr, E, R, Pease : 

J, Spielman, Hyde-park 2 2 
Per Mr. Volkhovsky: 

Mr, Poultney Bigetow 10 
F. W, llendy, Newcaslle 1 
Mrs, Meri, Newcastle ...10' 
Per Mr, W. W. Mackenzie 

Miss Kate Lcmann.Balh lO < 
Rev. E. Lyttleton, Hai- 

leybury 10' 

Mr, L. Jones, York ,.. 6 ( 

Miss Borchard, Finchley G 1 
Kev G, M, S Lester, 

Belbnal-greer 6' 

Annie C. Marshall, Edin- 

Ijutgh 6 I 

K. A. Hudson, London -. 10 I 



Mrs. Athcrlon and Miss K, 

Thornbury. I^ndon .., 
J. Mallinson, BirminBliam ■ 
H. M. Murray, London ... 
Per Mr. \\. W, Mackenzie : 

MadameVenturi. Chelsea ' 
Ada Radford. Tun bridge 

Wells 

Per Mrs. Lonsdale Holder. 
Tasmania : 

Her own subscription ... 

Mrs, MaitlsndWare ... 

Donation from friends... 
J, Fletcher Moulton, g.C, 

LiOndon 

Mr. and Mrs, C.Thompson 

Cardift ., ,. 



RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

ivards. — (It chronological order. J 
s. d. £ s. d. 

Per Miss M. Carmichael. 
1 1-ondon : 

10 For herself and Mr. F, 

10 Burton r, 

T, Neild. Manchester ... 2 7 
10 6 Norman Wilson, Chelsea 6 
Mise £, B. Clark. Somerset 6 
3 Mr J. B, Clark, Somerset 5 
Louisa C. Shore, Maiden- 
head .1 

IQ Mrs, W Walker. Leeds ... 6 
G Per Mr. Mackenzie ; 
Mri, Henry Riihatdson. 

Vork ... 10 

3 Mrs, Simpson, EdinbutEh 10 p 



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December i, i8g2. FREE RUSSIA. 

ADVERTISEMENTS. 



IBOOXCS Ji.T9I> Z> A. UK X> ZX Xa EL or S 

(In English, Russian, and otktr languages) 

Prohibited in Russia, can be obtained from the 

Office of the RUSSIAN FREE PRESS FUND. 



Apply (either personally or by letter) to 

W. H. VOTNICH (J. Kelchevsky), 3, IFFLEY ROAD, HAMMERSMITH, W. 

Offici hours : 9 to 1, daily. Catalogue, post free. Id. 



The Fund also issues pamphlets in Russian ; the three first {" What is Wanted," 2d., 
and edition, and " The Agitation Abroad," ad., by S. Slepniak, and " A Jew to Jews," 4d., 
by E. Khazin) have already appeared; "Life of l>ombrcvsky " ; "Underground Russia," by 
Stepniak, 2/-, in preparation. 

Bound YolnmeS of « FREE RUSSIA." | 3 To the Arctic zone. Price ad ; post f«.. iM 

Cloth boards. , 4. A Joumeyunder Arresl.andedilion, rrice jd. ; post 

Price, complete with ist No., £1 post free 
without ist No., 28. 6d., post free. 



Apply at the Office of the Russian Free Press 
Fund. For particulars see above. 

Pamj'hltls published by the Society : 
I. The SUughler of Politic&l FrisonerE In Siteria. 3r4 

edition iaprepamtian. Trice id.; prslfree, ijd. 
3. The Flogging of Political Exiles in Russift. I'rice 

jd. : post free, id. (znd edition in preparation.) 



Are Russian Inleraal Affairs any Concern of Ours ? 
by H, M. Thompson ; with a preface by Dr. R. 
Spence Watson. Price, 3d, : post free, i\A. 



All the above may be had of the Manager of Frbb 
RtissTA, 3, Iffley Road. Hammersmith, or the Secretary 
of the S. F. R.F. 



LAURIE'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE. 



New Editions of the following Just issued : — 
Laatie'B Teohnloal Readera. Lanrle'B StandaFd Readers. 

I<aari«'8 Oriental Readers. Laurie's Poatloal Series. 

Laurie's Hanaals of Special Instraotion, viz.: 

Spoiling;: Grammar; Composition: Elymoloay ; Geography; History; Arithmetic; Algebi 

Physiology ; Magnetism and Eieclridty ; Botany ; Geology ; Polilical Economy ; 1 

Latin: Poetical Seriss; Bible Readings; Kindergarten: Home l.e33< 

Laurie's Standard Copy Books. Laurie's Shilling EDtertaining library. 

Laurie's Kensington Berles. Lists on application. 

THOMAS UJLJJ'RXEj 28, Pa.tei?nosteT> Ro-w 

Contracfor to the War Office and Admiralty ; Maker to the Science Department, South Kensington. 

8o^ool eooks, Prizes, and Diagrams. Stationery and Certificates. Science Apparatiis, 

AH Models, School ApparatiiS. School LlbraiHas. Sloyd Tools. 

Kindergarten. Agricultural Models. School Museums. 

Elctnentary and High Schools, Technical Colleges and Manual Work Class-rooms fitted up and furnished 

with every requisite. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



ADVCRTISBHBNTS. 



WHY DOES RUSSIA LAG BEHIND 

in the March of Humanity to Freedom ? Is it not perhaps because being 
a nation of Tea Drinkers she still clings to the sapless and strengthless 
China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
progress have accepted with glad acclaim 

VENOYA «™w TEA 

which combines the strength of Indian Tea with the flavour of Ceylon 
Tea and compared with which the Teas of old are as water unto wine 
or as the rushlight's glimmer to the electric glow. 

Women of light and leading everywhere appreciate a cup of good Tea. 
Let those who have not yet done so 
TRY VENOYA, TUB NEIW TEA. 



A POSTCARD addpessed to the Proppietora of VENOYA TEA, 18 It 20, CAMOMILE STREET, 
will bring you by return a FREE SAMPLE and the nama of the nearest agent. 

JVew Book on the Theoiy of Wages. 



The theory of WAGES. 

AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE 

Eight Hours' Question, 

And other- Labour- Problems, 

By Herbert M. Thompson, m.a. 



Ci^o-w-n 8vo, Cloth. PRICB 3«. ed. 



MACMILLAN & Co., LONDON. 

DigilizedbyGoO'^Ie 



.// 



Free Russia 

THE oaaAir or tbz enoliss 

"$OCieti} of friends of 'glusstan 3free6om." 

RH>>tap«d a« a Newspaper for Transmlulon Abroad. 



Vol. 6.— No. 1.] LONDON and NEW YOBK : JANUARY 1st, 1894. 



[On Pkhkt. 



"FREE RUSSIA" BEGINS ITS FIFTH CALENDAR YEAR, 

and the Friends of Russian Freedom throughout the world may con^atnlate themselves on having 
canied on a re|ultu- propaganda for so long a period without interruption. Since so much work has 
been put into it, the task has become still more dear to those engaged in it. We hope that those 
who have not yet done so will renew their subsoriptions this year. 

Minimum membership subscription Five ShilliiiKs yearl>, including the receipt of Fbee Russia 
post free. Yearly subscription to the paper, One Shilling and Sixpence post free. 

All Oontributtoni and Subiariptloni to ba addrMMd to Dr. R. SPENCE WATSON, Bentham Qrove, Qateihead 
GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Those marked with an ■, (orm the Eiocutlve Committee. 
•Q. H. Psrrli. 
■J. Allanton Piston, M.P. 



Witlism Allan, MP. 
Rev. Oharlat A. Berry, D.D. 
Rev. Stopford A. Brooke. 
Peray W. Bunting. 
Thomas Burt, M.P. 
•W. P. Byle^ MP. 
The Oountasa of Carliila. 
Rev. W. Moore Ed*. 
J. E. Ellit, M.P. 
Miu Isabella 0. Ford. 
L T. Hobhouse. 



R. A. Hudson. 
"MiM Mary Kargrava. 

R. Maynard Leonard. 

Thomai Lough, M.P. 

John Maodonald. 
■W. Maokenri*. 
•Mrs. Charies Mallet. 
•E.J. C. Morton, M.P. 

J. Fletohsr Moultpn, Q.O. 
'Edvrard R. Peass. 



"MiBi Ada Radtord. 

Mrs. Harbart Rlx. 
•Herbert flix. 

H. Roberti. 

Joshua Rowntree. 

Wm. Saundart, LC.C, M.P. 

Rev, Prof. Shuttlaworth. 
■Mrs. Arthur SIdgwiok. 
•Adolphe Smith. 



ProfesiOP S .... 

'Herbert M. Thompion. 
'Wm. Thompson. 

J. 8. Trotter. 
*T. Fiiher Unwtn. 
•Mrs. Wilfrid Voynioh. 

Mrs. E. Spanoe Watson. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
•Mlu Helen Webb, M.B. 

Henry J. Wilton, M.P. 



'Robert Spenot Wation, LLD., Him. lYttuufmr, Bentbam Grove, Gateshead. 
•Miu Q. L Matlet, Ht». Sientmr^, 131, Cromwell Road, Sontb Kensington. London, S.W. 



Mr. GEORGE KENNAN'S 

On "Political Exiles at Siberian Convict Mines," 

AT 

PRINCE'S HALL, PICCADILLY, 
On BCOMDA-Sr, JANUAR'S' Stli, 1SS4, 



The cnafF wMI be taken at 8 p.m. by DR. SPENCE WATSON. 



TICKETS, 10/8, I/-, 2/6, and 1/-, cao be obtamed from tbe Hon. Sec., Miss G. L. 
Mallbt, 13a, Cromwell Road, S.W. ; Mr. Waters, 97, Westbourne Grove, W. ; also at 
Prioce's Hall, Piccadilly. 

QEQROS KENNAN'S PQRTRAITS on p.p. 2 and 3. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



January i, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 

Georgt Kennan in Tomsk (with two fotiraitsj by F. Volkhooshy. — The Butchery of tfu 
Catkoiia.—Ntws and Notes of the Month.— The Budget of the Russian Peasara.—The Stundists : 
The Story of a Great Revolt {by H. M. Thompson). — SavUtky's Affair, — Siberian Exiles in Saa 
Francisco . — Mutings. 

George Kennan in Tomsk, 

The feeling of a political exile somewhere in the devastation which this greedy, cold and 

Siberia are very much like those of a soldier who, unscrupulous deity has made in the former 

having been taken prisoner on the battle-field, is Olympus and Pantheon of the Annericans, yet we 

kept in captivity by a rough and arrogant enemy, have read still more about George Washington, 

who — he must admit — Im far larger forces in Benjamin Franklin, Morse, Edison, Hawthorne, 

the field than his own partisans have. The French Farragut, John Brown and Abraham Lincoln, and 



prisoners of war in Germany 
must have experienced those 
feelingsduring the last Franco- 
German war. A heavy bur- 
den those feelings are. The 
prisoner feels himself always 
a stranger in his place of resi- 
dence ; he feels that an un- 
friendly eye is kept on him — 
either openly or secretly — ^but 
still kept on him; he cannot, 
so to say, take root in the 
place to which he has been 
sent, for even supposing it 
to be pleasant in itself, it 
is made obnoxious by his 
being forcibly tied to it. 
Those near and dear to him, 
those with whom he shared 
his hopes and sorrows, the 
dangers of the struggle and 
the delights of success, in the 
sacred cause, are far away. 
He knows that every soldier 
is badly wanted on the battle- 
field, yet he has to waste his 
forces here in idleness and 
inactivity 1 No cheering news, 

no word of encouragement QEORQE KENNAN, IN 1 

reaches him. Quite the con- ffm-. o ronu* pMotrafk.) 

trary; he may count far more securely on learning fully in the 



those great figures and many 
others seemed always to look 
at us when we thought of the 
republic. 

It will be gathered from 
this that our preconceived 
idea of an American was one 
rather difficult for a living 
specimen to satisfy. Yet the 
newcomer thoroughly satisfied 
us. He was very reserved, 
though without coldness ; ob- 
servant, easy and somewhat 
grave in demeanour, though 
altogether without affectation. 
His thin, sinewy figure, manly 
bearing and beautiful dark 
eyes bore the stamp ik firm- 
ness and truthfulness, and 
impressed the observer as 
belonging to a man on whom 
he could rely. He never 
slnwed any sympathy with 
our " revolutionary " views, 
but he was always prepared 
to listen silently and without 
any preconceived anlmosi^ 
to what we had to say. And 
that was, in fact, all we were 
longing for. We believed so 
, . , , „ , ighteousness of our cause, tb» 

every now and then something which has been blackness of our enemy was, in our belief, so 
misrepresented and perverted about the noble obvious, that we only wanted the chance of 
fight. bringing facts to light. We never had had 

Such were our dominating feelings, those of the that opportunity. Until then we had been talking 
political exiles in Tomsk in i88j, when the either to acknowledged friends or to prejudiced 
exciting and in every way unusual news reached enemies, but never to an impartial outsider, who 
us that an American traveller was in the town, would take on himself to bring the case before 
An American traveller ! A citizen of the great the tribunal of universal conscience. Now we 
republic where everyone can talk and print what- met such a man. His name was George Kennan. 
ever he tikes ; where everyone may appeal to the No wonder that we were transported, that for a 
conecience and wisdom of the people ; where time we forgot all our griefs, and that later on 
the suffrage is freely enjoyed and wh. re everyone we became tenderly attached to him. This hap- 
considers Tiis house his castle and that his person- pened the more easily as he never declined any 
ality and his body belong to himself ! We have invitation on our part, and proved to be pleasant, 
read a good deal about the Almighty Dollar and unceremonious and gentlemanly, and had for h^ 



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January i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



inseparable companion Mr. George A. Frost, 
that ifenial, op^n-hearted and exceedingly kind 
artist. They would call at our modest abodes 
with their banjo and drawings, would partake in 
the ever-seasonable and interminable Russian 
teas, cordially chat 'about everything on earth, 
and never decline to sing a song. Their 
visits never bore the unpleasant stamp of an 
explorer's investigation. The traveller never 
made any notes, the artist never sketched any- 
thing in our presence unless asked to do so. But 
when they returned to their hotel room, however 
late, they would not go to sleep. Mr. Kennan 
would take his note-book, Mr. Frost his album, 
and they would enter on paper the impressions and 
information of the day. Sometimes the work 
lasted till three or five in the morning ! At that 
time we never suspected that ; we learned it later 
on. At the time 1 speak of, if we called on Mr. 
Kennan at nine o'clock in the morning we found 
him already dressed, and we never imagined that 
a man so full of life and energy was sleeping 
night after night only some four to five hours. 



Mr. Kennan spent over a week with us, and 
then went east. As soon as he left us a feverish 
activity began. We began to collect documents, 
to write reminiscences, and to exhort our com- 
rades with whom we were in safe correspondence 
to do the same. Our conversations, very naturally, 
were full of the event, and our spirits rose. 

Five months later, as I came to the Municipal 
Bank, where 1 served as clerk, I was told that 
some stranger, apparently " a Circassian," was 
asking for me, and had promised to call again. I 
was yet lost in conjecture when " the Circassian " 
appeared in person, and proved to be Mr. Kennan 
in his winter travelling dress. Indeed, his 
brownish weather-beaten complexion, aquiline 
nose, manly noastache, and firm look suggested 
the idea of a Circassian. I met him as one meets 
the fulfilment of his best hopes. After a hasty 
conversation we fixed a meeting, and I went to 
my woric. But the results of my sitting over my 



writing were not very great that afternoon, I must 
confess. Instead of thinking of the recovery of 
some debt, I was thinking of the man who had 
just vfeited me. He proved to be what he seemed 
to be I He had not forgotten us, nor had he 
changed his mind for the worse I And we were 
to see and hear still more of him I 

The next week or ten days spent by Messrs. 
Kennan and Frost in Tomsk were again a 
refreshing and invigorating draught of happiness 
to us. Five months ago he had left us — a 
doubting, reluctant stranger, distrusting the real 
meaning of facts which he could not deny. He 
returned a man conquered by the overwhelming 
amount of evidence his own eyes and ears bad 
given him, and who — so far as his personal 
sympathies went— had made his choice between 
us and our enemy. Not that he shared all our 
views. But he realised and acknowledged that 
we were honourable people fighting for a righteous 
cause, and that, were he in our position, he would 
probably act on the whole exactly as we did. He 
delivered his messages from our friends, told us 
heaps of news about our eastern comrades, and 
made our hearts leap with joy by his reiterated 
promiss to plead the cause of truth before the 
conscience of the world. 

The vast and commodious tarantds (wagon on 
wooden springs) of the two Americans was quite 
ready to receive its passengers and to start, the 
Myka (three horses harnessed in a peculiarly 
great Russian way) occasionally clinging with 
their harness and bells, when I bade my last — at 
least, I thought it was my last — farewell to the 
man who became dearer to me than so many of 
my own race. We wer» alone in his hotel room. 
I held his hand and unconsciously lingered, 
reluctant to relinquish it. I felt as if I were going 
to lose a brother whom I had never seen before 
though I had known that he was living some- 
where, for wnom 1 had been longing for many 
years, had found at last, and, after a short 
meeting, had to part with for ever. ... I 
knew he was going to do great things for the 

cause for which I lived, yet I could not banish 

from my soul the instinctive feeling that he was 

going to freedom and activity, while I had to 

remain in bondage and inertness. 
" I wonder whether we shall meet again," I 

said sadly, never believing that we should. 
" Why, it is not impossible," said Mr. Kennan 

encouragingly. 

" But how ? To escape ? " And I shook my head 

doubtfully. (I was married and had children). 
" Yes. Do not forget my friend B. in San 

Francisco. You have his address. If you apply 

to him in my name in need he will do anythmg 

for you." 

" Very well. But even supposing I could 

escape, what would be my position ? My health 

is fumed. How could I earn my bread 7 " 
" O, you know several languages, you have 

education. You might for example, get a 



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January i, 1894. 



position in the Washington National Library 
or Museum," my interlocutor said in his sober- 
minded, business-like, American way. 

T4ien we embraced one another and ex- 
changed kisses " in Russian," and I gave a 
deep sigh. I never expected to see him again, 
nor did I anticipate any other prospect for 
myself than to die in some Siberian waste. 

But look how things have changed. I am 
writing these reminiscences in London, as editor 
of a monthly representing theEnglish sympathy 
with and co-operation in the Russian liberation 
movement ; I am writing it in anticipation of 
George Kenoan's visit to Old England, where 
he is going to plead the cause of Russian libera- 
tion before the tribunal of universal conscience, 
as he has already done in the New World. 

Let us work on, then, success will be ours. 
Felix Volkmovsky. 



The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom 
oolleote money for assisting Rasslan politioal 
prisoners and exiles to escape. Contributors 
to this special fond shooid si^i^, when 
sending tnelr donations to tiie Hon. Tmas- 
nrer, tne special purpose for which they are 
sent 



TAe Butchery of the 
Catholics. 

The English reader has already been informed 
through the daily press of the massacre in a 
church in the province of Kovno. With a 
heavy heart we nave now to confirm the blood- 
curdling news, and to give some details which 
have not yet appeared in the English press. 

Kr6zhe is a small place near the German 
frontier, in the district of HossiSny, populated 
almost exclusively by one of the LithuSni^n 
tribes, the rest of the population being Poles or 
Jews. All the population are Roman Catholics 
with the exception of some Protestants among 
the LithufiniCns, the only representatives of the 
Greek- Catholic creed being two or three 
Russian governmental officials. Nevertheless, 
the Russian government wants the LithuSnigns 
to be converted to that creed, and therefore, 
last spring the Roman Catholic monastery in 
Kr6zhe was closed, all the monks forcibly 
removed to some other place in South Russia, 
and the funds belonging to the convent seques- 
trated and employed for purposes of Orthodoz- 
ation. The old church of the convent, built 
about three hundred years ago, was suffered to 
remain open for service for the moment, but 
the same fate awaited it in the near future. 
The carrying out of the plan might, however, 
present some difficulty. In olden times Kr6zhe 
was Eamous for its schools and for its college 
eoDducted by the Jesuits and other monastic 



orders ; consequently, the place was one of the 
strongholds of Roman Catholicism. In the 
middle of October last the news about the 
coming closing of the church spread in Kr6zbe. 
Then the population decided to watch the 
church. Day and night it was filled with people, 
and when the priest, Ranetzky, obeying the 
orders of the authorities, removed the holy 
sacrament to the vestry, they returned it to the 
altar. 

On the 22nd of November (presumably old 
style, which means the 4th December of the 
new) the Governor of the Kdvno province 
arrived in person at Kr6zhe at 2 o'clock in the 
morning with a detachment of irregular cavalry 
(the so-called Don -Cossacks), which he took 
from the nearest borough Vornic. That gentle- 
man, Klingenberg by name, is a German of the 
Baltic provinces, and behaved on this occasion 
as a real German invader. The church was 
surrounded by the troops, who charged with 
swords upon the people within. Over a score 
were killed and about a hundred wounded. 
The remainder fled in the direction of the river 
Krozh^nta, but were pursued by the Cossacks, 
and a good number of the unfortunates were 
drowned. Over a hundred were arrested. 
All that time Klingenberg remained in Krfizhe 
in person, and finally directed the Cossacks 
" to find and arrest in the neighbouring villages 
the escaped guilty ones," under which pretext 
ransacking began. 

Whenever the Russian bureaucratic abso- 
lutism commits some bloody crime, it is anxious 
to persuade the world that it was driven to it 
by provocation. Starting from the hypothesis 
that since there was punishment there must 
'have been some crime to punish, the Imperial 
government treats the unfortunate victims of 
its brutality and stupidity as atrocious 
criminals. So was it with the victims of the 
Yakoutsk butchery ; so will it be 00 this 
occasion. The prisoners are to be " tried " by 
court-martial — rumour already says that over 
a score will be shot. 



News & Notes of the Month. 

Recently a Renter telegram informed the 
English press of the discoveiy of a conspiracy 
against the life of the Tzar. Three small cases 
filled with dynamite are even reported to have 
been discovered, on the night of 5th December, 
in a boat on the Neva. Later on a Dalziel's ■ 
telegram stated that " a body of Moscow police, 
assisted by a detachment of Cossacks, surprised 
a large meeting of conspirators which was being 
held in an isolated house a short distance out- 
side Moscow. When the Nihilists found that 
they had been discovered, they set about offer- 
ing a vigorous resistance. In the fight which 
ensued i^ of the police were wounded, but aa 
it was evident they would tie successful at last, 



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five of the Nihilists committed suicide to escape 
arrest ; 22 succeeded iu making good their 
escape, but the police were able to effect the 
capture of about 50 others." 

A good deal m both telegrams is, on the 
surface, only the usual concomitants of the 
sensational news about " Nihilists." As pohti- 
cal information from fully reliable sources 
travels from Russia very slowly, wc could not 
yet have received either any confirmatiou or 
denial. This being so, the reader must not 
forget that reports about dynamite and 
attempts upon the Tzar's life are constantly 
circulated in Russia. On the one hand, they 
spring up very easily in that portion of the 
population (now a very considerable one^ who, 
though taking no active part in revolution, 
would eagerly welcome any such attempt, acd, 
on the other, by means of the police in order to 
prepare the minds of a credulous public, 
especially abroad, and to win approbation for 
any atrocities in the way of arrests they like to 
commit. As regards the reported arrests, this 
must be true. According to the Reuter's tele- 
gram, up to the present moment upwards ot 50 
persons have been taken into custody in con- 
nection with the affair, among them being 
several ladies, some of whom are mere girls, 
and a large number of officers. 

One of the arrested, a medical student, is said 
to have been driven to confess by some torture 
or other. Other prisoners are also said to be 
tortured. To put ladies and children in solitary 
confinement is a usual thing during political 
inquiries in Russia. Mile. Goukovsky, who 
several years ago committed suicide in Krasno- 
yarsk, was exiled to that town at the age of 14 ; 
the younger members of two families, those of - 
the Levandovsky and Ivichevich, were also 
about thai age when imprisoned with solitary 
confinement. As to torture, that confinement, 
together with enforced idkness and lack of 
reading, is, in itself, a torture which sometimes 
is made still more horrible by intimidation — 
giving false news about those most dear to the 
prisoner, or by exposing him or her to specially 
inhuman hardships, of which we have given 
some specimens long ago.* In 1890 two Polish 
workmen, Zelcer and Zalesky, were even 
flogged by the ^miAinM-Colonel Bielanovsky in 
order to extort some information from them.""" 



The radical Oukranien paper Narod (published 
in Austria) gives us some particulars about the 
arrests committed in October. At that period 
a certain Sviderski was put in prison — a young 
man who in the beginning of the eighties was 
exiled to Siberia, and who since then has 

•See, for example, the article "Unpublished 
Facts " in the October Number of Free Russia for 
1S90, and especially the case of Yulovsky, 

** Fkxz Rusbu for March, iSgi, pages 3 and 4. 



returned to Warsaw, where he held a position. 
He carried on correspondence with a Miss Deish 
through his cousin Mile. Re&utovsky. He was 
arrested in St. Petersburg (others sayat his bead- 
quarters in Warsaw},and after that the girls were 
kept under arrest ; besides them, two other per- 
sons were arrested in Chernigov, a certain An- 
drievsky and an undergraduate, Novodvorsky. 
Deish was living with her mother at the local 
school for the daugliters of clergymen, of which 
her mother was the head- mistress. When it 
was found by the clergy that Deish was placed 
under domiciliary arrest, her mother was de- 
prived of her post and Deish imprisoned and sent 
to Warsaw with the others who were arrested. 
The result of all this, we learn, is that Deish's 
mother, who was suffering from heart disease, 
is dying. AndriSvsky was obliged to leave a 
wife and two children without any support, and 
R66utovsky, believing that she was the cause 
of all this disaster, went mad. 

The Polish newspapers inform us that at the 
beginning of December rigorous searches were 
made in the tramcars of Warsaw. Women 
were asked to unfasten their dresses, and their 
pockets were turned out. All this was done in 
the search for some patriotic documents. At 
the same time arrests were made, part of the 
arrested being exiled to Russia, others being 
put into the Citadel. One of our correspond- 
ents gives us the name of one of the arrested — 
Imshenetzky. 

In all the district post offices of Lithuania 
the following short but significant notices 
appeared recently on the walls in Russian : 
" No Polish speaking allowed." 

Several Roman Catholic priests were recently 
subjected to punishment in Lithuania for various 
alleged offences. The following instance will 
give an idea of the character of the offences : 
The Rev. Vashkevich, priest of the Vilno 
Cathedral, was accustomed to assist at con- 
firmation. On these occasions he had to 
address those confirmed, using a formula 
borrowed from the Roman Catholic Catechism, 
which, among other things, contained the 
following words : " And you have to spill your 
blood for the sake of your religion." These 
words were quoted to the authorities by some 
denunciator as an incitement to rebellion, and 
the priest, after a good deal of worry, was. 
deprived both of his position and peosioa and 
confined in a monastery. 

Next year there will be a Pan-Polish Indus- 
trial Exhibition in Lemburg, Galicia. The 
Russian government have forbidden Russian 
subjects of Polish extraction to take any part 
in it. 



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January x, 1894. 



The Minister of Public Education is just now 
making his tour in the Baltic provinces. In all 
the educational institutions he has visited, as the 
Russian papers report, the main point of his 
inspection has been to discover what progress 
Russification is making. In Riga, the oldest of 
the middle schools exists at the expense of the 
town; its pupils are almost exclusively German, 
yet the teaching there now is conducted, under 
compulsion, in Russian. Among other things, 
the children were required by the Minister to 
show their skill in singing Russian songs and 
the official hymn "God Save the Tzarl" A 
third governmental seminary is going to be 
founded in the Baltic provinces to prepare 
teachers for primary schtKils there, well versed 
in Russian. The reader must not forget the 
iact that the population of these provinces is 
either Lettonian, Esthonian or German. 

The Town Council of Riga has appealed to the 
Russian Senate against the order of the Ministei 
of Public Education, that the examinations, for 
the purpose of giving certificates to women 
teachers in the town, should be held in Russian. 

This month the Metropolitan of Kiev has 
called a convocation of the clergy of the diocese 
of Kiev to discuss, among other subjects, the 
question of combating tlie Stundists. This 
means that these unfortunate and noble people 
have, in the near future, new atrocities to face. 



Our SiberiaD correspondent writes that two 
political lady prisoners, T. and R., have been kept 
now six months in the Irkoutsk Hospital of the name 
of Kouznetzov, which is the hospital for mental 
diseases. Both have lost their reason at the Kara 
!. R. ii 
rumour goei 

prison, Mme. T.'s case is hopeless, and therefore she 
is also to be returned to the .convict prison. 

Our regular readers may remember that several 
months ago a few Birminebam Fiienda of Russian 
Freedom printed and pubushed for the Society, at 
their own expense, the pamphlet " At the Mercy of 
every Official," by F. Vollchovatty. Of the 1,000 
copies which constituted the edition only a few 
scores are left, as that sketch of exile life (which 
ori^ally appeared in the New Review) sold very 
qmckly, and the demand lor it Is atill great. Will 
not some other helpers in the Russian liberation 
movement take od themselves to bring out a new 
edition 7 This would meet an argent need. 

The newiupplemented edition (with a plan) of the 
pamphlet " The Slaughter of Political Prisoners in 
Vakoutsk " is published at zd., post free z^d. Orders 
ought to be sent to the Hon. Sec. of the Oxford 
branch of the Friends of Russian Freedom, 64, 
Woodstock Road, Oxford. 

The last collection of the Newcastle-on-Tyne 
branch resulted In £i 28. 6d. The membership of 
the Cardiff branch Is slowly but steadily increasing. 



An encouraging feature of the Cardiff and Leeds 
branches is that their secretaries often kave recourse 
to the local press in the interests of the movement. 
Both in the South Walei Daily News and the Western 
Mail the formation of the Cardiff branch and the 
object of the movement were explained at some 
lengtlH and the activity of the Cardiff branch has 
already lead to a controversy in the Western Mail. 

The WesUm Mail of December 13th, contains a 
letter by £. R. S. Morgan, calling on the too credu- 
lous and impulsive public to watch the Society 
nairowly. " Providence," the writer states in tus 
picturesque language, " has broadly committed to 
the Russian nation, under the guidance of their 
Tzars, the difhcult task of re-constrnctiog, amid the 
snowy wildemessesof the remote and once unknown 
North, the old Eastern Empire." With thia im- 

rrtant mission the Ignorant busy-bodies (of whom 
appears the Cardiff branch of the F. R. F. is 
excludvely composed) are endeavouring to interfere. 
Mr. H. M. Thompson points out, in his answer, that 
the writer's frank distrust of representative institu- 
tions shuts him out from sympathy with those whose 
object is to help those Russians who are trying to 
secure such for meir own people, and the corruption 
of whose present government is a sufficient cribcism 
on a system which ignores representativism. On 
hto part, Mr. Rothstein comments in the Leeds 
Mercury with an able pen upon every Rusuan topic 
which happens to come I>ef6re the local public ; upon 
Mrs. Crowford, who, in her address about women as 
JoumaUsts, attributed the Uberation of the Serfs in 
Russia " to the impression made by ' Uncle Tom's 
Cabin ' on the late Czarina and the Grand Duchess 
Helen" (!) upon the Franco- Russian turmoil, upon 
one of the pamphlets published by the London 
Russian Free Press, &c. We are glad to observe 
this, as it is one of the most effective ways of 
spreading truth about Russia among the English. 

For the tienofit of those who intend lecturing on 
" Siberia," Mr. Thomas Lanrie has geoerousl]' offered to 
lend gratis some thirty lanlerD slides of the most strildng 
illnitraiioDs Id Kennan's" Siberia" Adv person lecturing 
under the stupicet of tbe S. F, R. F. who wishes to avaS 
bimselt of this offer should apply to Thomas Laurie, 
18, PatBTDoMer Row, London. Hr. Laurie only asks 
that thon bonowing the sUdes sboold mgatd themselves 
as responsible lor tbeii safe return, carriage paid. 



TAe Budget of the Russian 
Peasant. 

A well-known Russian statician has made a state- 
ment before the Voronezh Statistical Board with 
regard to the budget <A the avet^e Russian peasant 
of that locality, drawn &om bis mvestigatlons In 67 
typical households. This budget is of especial 
interest to the English student of economics, for 
although in the different provinces the items of 
expentuture might be found to vary, the total may 
be taken as representing f^rly the expenditure w 
the Russian peasants as a whole. 

A hmily consisting of eight members, of whom two 
are grown up workers, spends during the year per 
head A 7s. 8d. and 5-6thB of a penny, or Ss. ltd. 



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January i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



Eami, the ramalnlne sum is apent on g< 
cub btw to be paid. The expenditui 
half is M fbUowB :— 



Taxes, Rent, Rates, and expen- 
diture coaDected with muntaio- 
ing household and farm 

Food (or cattle... 

Dress 

Whiskey 

Agricultural products 

Repairs 

Expenditure on stock 

Tea and sugar 

Fish 

Household goods 

Meat and dairy produce (if any) 
Tar (tar is used by the Rusaian 
peasant instead of grease for the 
wheels of his waggons, and for 
his boots instead of blacking on 
account of its cheapness 
Horse shoes, nails and ironware i 

Salt 

Petroleum 

Soap 

Ropes 

Medicine 

Fuel 

Beer 



Total £2 



! II 7-25 

) II 19-25 

> 10 4-5 

' 9 3-5 



57-25 
238-125 
1 124-125 
I 76-125 



67-25 



These figures give more iuformation to a thinking 
person than maQv pages of minute description or 
nojrs of burning haranguing on the position of the 
Russian peasant. He is so often charged with being 
lazy and unenterprising, but what can an agri- 
culturajisi undertake whose yearly budget is£$ 7s. Sd. 
and 5-6ths of a penny per head, of wbTcb about one- 
fourth is taken trom him in the form of taxes and 
rates ? He ii said to be improvident, yet we see 
that his expenditure in maintaining his household 
and larming are more than double of what he spends 
for bis personal necessities. He is accused of being 
entirely given up to drinking, while in reality he 
spends on wbisVey and beer under 4s. a year I 
Indeed, after one has gone carefully through the 
whole budget, noticed how much meat the peasant 
can have during the year, how much money he can 
spend in soap, and so on, one is surprised to see him 
work as he does work, and yet preserve all the 
focnltiea of mind and heart that characterise a 
bumao being. 



np to to-day, and has given a clear and independent 
account of the whole of their interesting story. 

Our author does not follow the authorities 1 have 
mentioned in considering the Stundists as one of a 
group of sects in revolt against the wooden formalism 
of the Russian Orthodox Church. One reads a con- 
siderable way through bis pages before there is any 
mention of other kindred sects, such as the Duldio- 
bor^y and the Molokanc. His view is that the 
colonies of Suabian peasants planted by the Empress 
Catherine amongst the imaginative and impression- 
able peasantry of Little Russia have acted as a 
ferment in a susceptible envuronment. Doubtless, 
German influence has been all important in founding 
the sect and in moulding its ideas. Yet, if one loses 
sight altogether of the other religious movemenls 
amongst the peasantry which preceded it, one hardly 
obtains a complete view of the question, and one 
does not realise that there might probably have been 
a great religious revolt amongst the South Russian 
peasantry even if they bad been uninfluenced by 
German religious thought. 

It is clear that the Stundist sect came into being 
at a fortunate time. The years from 1858 to 1671 
were as favourable a time tor its inception as could 
be found, for these were the very years which 
covered the progressive and reforming period of 
Alexander ll.'s reign. During the first nine years 
there was no persecution, and the new reugion 
spread rapidly and obtained a firm grip on many of 
the people. The first arrest we hear of is that of the 
Ratushni brothers, which appears to have token 
place in 18G7. In this and the following year attacks 
on the idolatry practised towards the "Icons" or 
holy pictures (found in every household) began. " A 
number of prominent Stundists were arrested in 
consequence, but they only suffered imprisonment 
for a few weeks." The writer does not bring this 
part of his subject very prominentl]/ forward. We 
nave no stories in his pages of processions of peasants 
trailing Icons at the ends of pieces of string in the 
mild to the church doors and asking the priests to 
take the idols off their hands. Up to 1870 the 

eisition of the Stundisi s In relation to the Orthodox 
burch had been something akin to that of the 
Methodists in relation to the English Church at the 
beginning of Wesley's mission. But about 1S70 
" the Stundists were gradually severing themselves 
froiti all connection with the Orthodox Church." 
(r^ be coniiKutd.) 



The Stundists : the Story of 
a G^eat Religious Revolt. 

(Jas. Clarke &. Co., London, iSgj). 
It is a matter for congratulation that the important 
letters describing the Stundist body which have 
recently been contributed to the ChrUlian World are 
now re-publisbed in the book before us. The 
interesting chapter on the same subject in Stepniak's 
» Russian Peasantry " was written five or six years 
ago, and the detailed accounts in the French 
writings of Leroy- Beau lieu and of 1'sakni are not 

Suite recent. The anonymous contributor to the 
hrislian World has brought the history of the sect 



Siberian Exiles at San 
Francisco. 

A short time ago five convicts landed at San 
Francisco, having escaped from the Rusuan penal 
settlement of Sakhalin. They appear to be ordmar^ 
and not political prisoners. At the same time, if 
their stories may be believed, they have been 
subjected to very unjust treatment. It appears now 
that they will not, as was at first supposed, be 
returned under the immigration laws. Since their 
arrival, however, five more convicts have arrived — 
four murderers and an alleged " Nihilist " and con- 
spirator. These men have not been allowed to land, 
and the San Francisco Commissioner of Immigration 
confesses himself puzzled about the case. It is his 
duty, he states, to prevent convicts from landing ; la 
an ordinary case he does not allow them to leave ths 



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January i, 1894. 



veeael that brought them, *aA reqniros the ship to 
return them wlunce they came. 

But it seems that the convicts in question were not 
brought from any foreign port, but were picked up 
by the whaler in mid-ocean, and the lawcan hardly 
be interpreted to mean tlial the captain must have 
orders to return them to the same spot — and the 
whaler is not bound (or any foreign port. 

Mr. Stradley, the Commisaioner of Immigration, 
docfl not regard the case as one to he dealt with 
under the immigration laws; it is a cose, he says, 
for the State Department at Washington. He thinks 
the Secretary of State shoold communicate with the 
Russian government, and that action should be 
taken in the nature of extradition proceedings. 
Even if the common convicts should oe returned 
under the immigration laws, if the Russian govern. 
ment wishes to recover the Political fugitive it will 
have to apply for him under tne extradition treaty. 

Shall we have an example bo soon of the working 
of the clause which makes an attempt on the Tzar's 
life a non-political and, consequeutly, extraditable 
offence. According to KovalePs (the alleged con- 
spirator) statement, he was arrested first in St. 
Petersburg for having placed, with 23 others, a 
dynamite bomb in one of the doorways of the palace. 
We team from the November number of the 
American edition of Free Russia that the American 
Friends of Russian Freedom would not he sonv If 
the Russian government claimed the political 
offender under the new treaty — that the American 
people may see in work a treaty through which it 
bos g.ven to the barbarous government of Russia, 
concessions it has granted to scarcely auy other 
flower. It might prove a fresh incentive iot agita- 
tions in favour of its repeal. But they fear the 
Russian government may see the wisdom of keeping 
quiet on the subject. 

In the meantime, a communication on the subject 
of the Siberian exiles, addressed by the Society of 
the American Friends of Russian Freedom to 
Secretary Gresham, has been fbrwarded by that 
gentleman to the Secretary of the Treasury, who is 
charged with the execution of the immigration laws. 



Savitzkys Affair. 

The reader may remember the incident concerning 
Savitzky's papers in Paris. To put It briefly, that 
Russo-Polish refugee left, after his death, some 
private papers which, it was supposed, if ttiey should 
come into the hands of the Rusaian poUce, woald 
endai^er some people ui Russia. Two different 
partiea asserted thnr claims to those papers — 
Savitzky's grandmother, who was his next-of-kin 
and was present in Paris, and the Russian Consul, 
who claimed them on the ground of the Franco- 
Rusalan Treaty of 1874, according to which the 
Russian Consulate was entrusted with the safe- 
guarding of property left behind by deceased 
Russian subjects. The French tribunal decided m 
favour of the Consul, to the general indignation of 
the press and public opinion ; and now some of the 
French Deputies are even willing to make an inter- 
pellation in the Chamber and raise the question 
about the abrogation of the Treaty; yet, according 
to law and custom, they cannot do It unless 
Savitzky's case first passes through all the law- 
courts up to the highest. 

There is hardly need to explain that the case is 
one of great political Importsuice, as the arbitrary in- 



terpretation of the Treaty of 1874 encroaches upon 
the right of refuge of all the Russian and Polish 
refugees in France, and ^ves to the Russian Tzar a 
new ground for persecutmg bis political enemies on 
French soil. Therefore the Russian refugees in 
Peris took the task of appeal on themselves and 
formed a committee to carry the thing out. Means 
are necessary for it, and the Committee has opened 
an international subscription to defray the heavy 
expenses of the cassation. Considering this matter 
to be one which cannot fail to appeal to the hearts 
and minds of the Friends of Russian Freedom, we 
thought it right to make it known to our readers. 
Subscriptions to the fund ore to be sent to Mr. Peter 
Lavrov, 328, Rue St. Jacques, Paris, France. 



Meetings. 

The Executive Comkittbb of the S.F.R.P, met aa 
December 6tb, at Mr. Rix'i Rooms, Burlington Hoase. 
Present : Dr. Speace Walsoa, in the chair. Miss Radford, 
Mrs. Arttiur Sidgwick, Mrs. Voynich, Messrs. W, P. 
Byles. T. Fisher Unwin. Pease. Perris, Rix, W, Thompson, 
Stepniak, Volkhovsky and Voynich. Alderman Mander, 
of Wolverhampton, was elected to the General Committee, 
andMr. J.F.GreenofSidcup.Kent, to tbeEiecmiveCom- 
miltee. Mrs. Voynich informed the Committee that she 
was making enquiries and expected to receive further 
particular* of the Massacre of Christians in Ljtbuania, 

OxKoRD Branch (Hon. Sec. Mrs. A. Sidgwick, 64, 
Woodstock Road, Oiford),— On December nth, the 
Secretary called attention, at a meeting of the Oxford 
Women's liE>eral Associallon, to the recent intelligence 
in the Daily ChreniiU as to arrests in Russia, among the 
students of St. Petersburg, and begged for suspended 
belief as to Ibe accuracy of all such reports until the 
issue of the next number of Frbb Russia. In connection, 
she dwelt on the lamentable mismanagement of these 
same students, manifest in the reported matter of the 
"sympathetic" telegram to Paris— a thing calculated 
to enrage young people, on their private account, a* well 
as those of Ibem in special who felt for the woes and 
could estimate Che intended effects of such a telegram on 
public opinion. Copies of the new pamphlet on the 
Stundists were offered on loan, for the use of the branch. 

NawcASTLX-OH-TyNE Branch (Hon. Sec. Miss E. 
Richardson. Wingrove House, Newcastle-on-Tvne). — 
The branch has secured Mr. George Kennao for a lecture, 
on February sih, on tiehalf of the F.R.F, (independently 
of his lecture on February 4th, for the Tyneside Sunday 
Lecture Society). A committee meeting was !o be held 
on December aoth, but the proceedings could not be 
reported in time to include it in the present number. 

Edinburgh Branch (Hon. Sec , D. W- Wallace. Ek]., 
S.S.C, 53, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh).— On Decem- 
ber lath, Mr, James Prelooker delivered a lecture 00 
" Russian Life, Religion, and Politics," in the Oddfellow's 
Hail, Edinburgh, under the auspices of the Society of 
Friends <^ Russian Freedom. Bailie Gulland presided, 
and the ball was well fiUed. Mr. Prelooker Mid that \a 
Russia the government spent 60 times more for military 
purposes than for education- In this country education 
was compulsory, and military service vofuntary; in 
Russia. Ibe reverse was the case. The government did 
everything it could to hinder the education of the people. 
The Russian churches were wonders of art, but nothing 
more. Press censorship was one of the worst evils in the 
countiy. They took the soul out of a book, and left the 
bones. (Laughter.) If anyl>ody wanted to see the 
misery of a nation be should go and visit a Rnssian 
village. Agriculture was, of course, one of the principal 
occupations, but it was in a very primitive stale- 
According to HlMStgUk Ltadir, "the lecture, which was 
illustrated by limelight views, was very entertaining." 

I iBgi, Insuw] Of iSjI. 



-In I 



t No., I 



a i}4, ihlid U 



Printed ud Published t)y W*ju> ft Foxlow, U3. Chorch Street. London, N.W.— January iit, 1894. 

eg, zee by Google 



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TBS OBQAir OF TBB ZNOUSE 
$ocieft? of §(rten68 of Itussian ^veebom. 

(leglataped as a Nawapapai" foi* TranamlBBlon Abroad. 



Vol. 6.— No. 8.] LONDON ihi> NEW YOBE : FEBBUABY 1st, 1891. [On Fimr. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

Thb English Society of Fri«ads of RaBdan Freedom, fonnded In November, 18S9. baa for Its objects to M, 
to the extent of its powers, the RuBsian patriots who are tiying to obtain for their conntiy that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of natiaiiftllty 
or poUtical creed, who cannot witness with indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of tbeTxars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Russian people. Further contributions to the fuiids and 
further work are needed and will be welcome. Membership ia acquired by sending to the Treasurer an uuiaal 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Free Rutiia post free. 
All Contribution* and Subsoription* to be addrasied to Dr. R. 8PENCE WATSON, Stniham Grova, Qatnhaad 
GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Those marked with an ", form the Execullve Committee. 



William Allan, M.P. 

Rev. OhaHet A. Berry, D.D. 

Rev. StopTord A. Brooke. 



Rev. Pagfi Hopps. 

R. A. Hudson. 
■Mils Mary Hargravfl. 

R. Maynard Leonard. 

Thomas Lou^h, M-P. 

John Maodonsld. 
•W. Maaksnzle. 
■Mrs. Charles Mallet 

8. T, MandBP, J.P. 
■E.J. 0. Morton, MP. 

<l. Fletoher MouHon, Q.O. 
■Edward R. Pease. 



"0. H. Perrii. 
•J. Allaneon Piston, H.P. 
"Miu Ada Radtbnl. 
Mrs. Harbort Hix. 



Thomai Burt, M.P, 
•W. P. Byles, MP. 

The Couittau of Carlisle. 

Rev. W. Moore Eds. 

J. E. Ellis, M.P. 

Mlu Isabella 0. Ford. 
"J, F- Green. 

L T. Hobhouse. 

'Robert Spenoe Wateon, LLD., Bn. 7\vanrtr, Bensfaam Grove, Gateshead. 
*Mit« G. L Mallet, Hon, Stenlarf, 132, Cromwell Road, South Keniington. London, S.W. 



H. Roberts. 

Jothua Rowntraa. 

Wm. Saunders, Lao., H.P. 

Rev. Prof. Shuttlsvrorth. 
■Mrs. Arthur Sidgwiok. 
■Adolphe Smith. 



Henry a Stephens, H.P. 

Professor Stuart, M.P. 
■Herbert M. Thompson. 
■Wm. Thompson. 

J. 8. Trotter. 
*T. Hiber Unwin. 
■Mrs. Wilfrid Voynloh. 

Hrt; L Spenoe Watson. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
•MiM Helen Webb, H.B. 

Henry J. Witton, M.P. 



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February i, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 

Russian Revolutionists and Wtst Enropean Anarchists 
(by Gtorge Ktnnan). — What it is Aimed at (by Dr. 
R. Spenct Watson ).^Kennan's English Campaign. 
— Financial Account of Georgt Kennan's Lecture. 
— The American Abrogation Petition. — A Cry of 
Despair (a Utter from a Siberian Exile). — A 
Beneficial Attack (by F. Velkhovsky). — News and 
Notes of the Month.~Tke Slundists : the Story 
of a Great Religious Revolt (by H. M. Thompson). 
—^List of Subscribers. 

J^ussian Revolutionists and 
West European A narchists. 

In the January number of the New Review, 
published by Wm. Hemrmann in I^ondon, 
there appears a double-headed article entitled 
"Aoaicbists: Their Methods and Organisa- 
lioD," in which an attempt is made to throw 
discredit upon the character of the Russian 
revolutionists by making it appear that they 
are all anarchists, and that they encourage and 
sympathise with the bomb- throwers of Paris 
and Barcelona. The second division of the 
article, which is signed " Ivanoff," is a direct 
attack upon certain Russian refugees who are 
now living in London, as well as upon 'the 
Friends ol Russian Freedom, and is the work, 
apparently, of a secret agent of the Russian 
detective police, who is, or pretends to be, 
imperfectly acquainted with the English 
language, and who paj seven less attention to 
the laws of truth and veracity than to the rules 
of grammar and composition. The statements 
made in " Ivano&'s " article are so absurdly at 
variance with the known history of the Russian 
revolutionary movement, and the biographical 
sketches of Mr. Stepniak and Mr. Volkhovsky 
are such malignant, but at the same time such 
preposterous caricatures, that the article seems 
to me to deserve no other attention than a quiet 
smile of amusement. The question that it has 
suggested most forcibly to me is, " Can it be 
possible that this ridiculous fabricator of mis- 
leading statements, who does not even write 
grammatically the language that he uses, is the 
strongest champion that the Russian govern- 
ment can set in the field ? " When I find in 
" Ivanofi's" article such statements as " The 
Nihilists have extolled (sic !) a crusade against 
state, religion, science, art, society, family, 
property and morals," or " Nihilism is an 
absolute denial of every branch of human 
civilisation;" and when I read such expres- 
sions as " The propaganda by the fact are 
advocated," " perform a search," " ovation of 
Prince Krapotkine " (meaning Prince Krapot- 
kine's escape from prison), " institutions kept 
on depoKt," &c., I am reminded of ibe 
epigiamatic SJj'ing of an American lawyer, 



who remarked, in the course of a debate, that 
his opponents English style " made up in error 
what it lacked in obscuritjr." It is not my 
purpose, however, in this brief article, to point 
out " Ivanofi's" mis-statements of fact, nor to 
dwell upon his grammatical idiosyncracies. 
What i desire tc do Is merely to give my own 
impressions with regard to the character and 
aims of the men and women who in Russia 
have been nicknamed " Nihilists," just as in 
America, a few years ago, the members of a 
political party opposed to immigration were 
nicknamed " know-nothings," 

In the course of my late visit to Russia and 
Siberia I made the personal acquaintance of 
more than five hundred men and women who 
were regarded by the Russian secret police as 
" Nihilists." Some were still at liberty in 
European Russia, some were in exile in 
Siberia, and some were in penal servitude 
at the mines of Kara. Among them all I 
did not find a single human being who could 
be called, by any stretch or license of language, 
an anarchist, nor did I find a single human 
being who would have approved — still less 
encouraged — such crimes as those recently 
committed in Paris and Barcelona. Most of 
the " Nihilists " whom I met in Siberia were 
simply moderate Liberals, and even the 
members of the extreme and radical fraction 
of the revolutionary party, known as the 
" Terrorists," declared to me, again and again, 
as they had already declared to Alexander III. 
in their famous letter of March 10, 1881, that 
they were fighting merely for a free repre- 
sentative form ol government, and that if 
the Tzar would summon a national assembly, 
to be elected by the people, they — the 
" Terrorists"^" would submit unconditionally 
to the decisions of such an assembly, and would 
not allow themselves to offer violent resistance 
to any government that such an assembly might 
sanction," Men and women who make decla- 
rations of this kind can be called " anarchists " 
only by those who are grossly ignorant of their 
character and aims, or by secret agents of the 
Russian police in London, who try to get an 
honest and faithful dog killed by calling him 
mad. But this is not all. The Russian 
"Nihilists" not only have not sympathised 
with bomb-throwing and assassination outside 
the Russian Empire, but have gone out of their 
way to denounce such crimes. When the late 
President of the United States, James A. Gar- 
field, was assassinated by Guiteau in the city 
of Washington, the columns of the "Nihilistic" 
newspaper " The Will of the People " (the 
organ of the Russian revolutionists) were 
bordered with black as a mark 
and sympathy, and the paper co 
eloquent leading article condemn' 
assassination as wholly unjust 
country where there are open coi 



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February i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



press, and where the ofBcers of the government 
are chosen by a free vote of the people. 

In conclusion, I can only say again what I 
have already said elsewhere, that, morally, the 
Russian revolutionists whom I met in Siberia 
would compare favourably with any body of 
men and women of equal numerical strength 
that I could collect from the circle of my own 
acquaintances. I do not share the opinions 
of all of them, but it is my deliberate con- 
viction, nevertheless, that, tested by any moral 
standard of which I have knowledge, such 
" Nihilists " as Volkhovsky, Chudnofski, Alex- 
ander Krapotkin, KohaD-Bern5tein,Charoushin, 
Klements, Natalie Armfeldt and Anna Pavlovna 
Korha represent the flower of Russian young 
manhood and young womanhood. General 
Strelnikof may say that they are " fanatics " 
and " robbers " ; secret agents of the Russian 
police in London may call them " anarchists" ; 
and Mr. Galkine-Wrasskoy may describe them 
as " wretched men and women whose social 
depravity is so great that it would shock the 
English people if translated into proper English 
equivalents"; but among these men and 
women, nevertheless, are some of the best, 
bravest and most generous types of manhood 
and womanhood that 1 have ever known. I 
am linked to them only by the ties of sympathy, 
humanity or friendship ; but I wish that I were 
bound to them by the tie of kindred blood. I 
should be proud of them if they were my 
brothers and sisters, and so long as any of them 
live they may count upon me for any service 
that a brother can render. 

Gborge Kennan. 



JVAat it zs A imed at. 

It is interesting to hear what the defenders 
of the government of Russia say in the attempt 
" to make the worse appear the better cause." 
For this reason alone we will pay some attention 
to Mr. IvanofTs article. 

The article is of set purpose so vague, the 
charges which it makes so nebulous, the argu- 
ment (save the mark!) so simply that of false 
suggestion, that it is not easy to bring the 
writer to any actual test. But happily I can 
find one of a little more importance. " In the 
issue of Free Russia of the i2th December, 
iSgi, insults of the coarsest character are 
hurled at His Imperial Majesty." I suppose 
that in this country we are used to plain language 
about potentates, but the article complained of 
is really an extract from a German work upon 
" Russia under Alexander III," by a writer 
who is a panegyrist rather than a condemner of 
the Emperor. He certainly describes a man 
who has many admirable qualities, hit who is 
by nature too stupid to grapple with the 
difficulties which surround him, or to find 
ministers who can do it for him. The language 



which IvanofT uses to characterise this article 
shows how completely unable he is to under- 
stand that in this country we are used to speak 
of kings and emperors as of other men, making 
due allowance for the greater difficulty of the 
strangely unnatural position in which they are 
placed, but recognising that their responsibility 
mcreases witti the increase of their power for 
good or evil. He does not understand how we 
can hold that the very fact that even yet the 
Russian peasant for the most part looked upon 
the Tzar with superstitious reverence, and 
blindly expects his protection, is the strongest 
count in the indictment against a government 
which systematically abuses the blind trust 
reposed in it. It is this treatment of the 
patient, long-suffering people, their life-long 
suffering, their grindmg taxation, their slow 
starvation, their systematic ruin, their brutal 
and violent mis-government, that create the 
great political movement of Russia of to-day, 
that send into prison and exile the flower of 
that country's youth, that lead rehned and well- 
to-do men and women to sacrifice everything 
dearest to the natural man in the endeavour to 
bring about such a change, as shall make life 
tolerable (I might truly say^possible) for those 
who still turn from them to one who will not save. 
The reader who knows that our object is to 
spread accurate information about Russian 
affairs; should readily understand that the 
anger which such an attempt arouses, only 
proves the existence of the need, 
" There's none ever feared (hat the truth should be heard, 
Save those whom the truth would indict." 
But what further charges does this man bring 
against us .'' The sentences in which he formu- 
lates them are a curious muddle, in which he 
mixes up the "English Society" and "the 
Nihilist " with rather too patent an object. 
But what does it come to when all is said and 
done -"An appeal is made to humanity against 
the ' tyranny ' of the Russian government on 
behalf of defenceless prisoners, who are repre- 
sented as the victims of odious prosecutions 
and outrages." That is quite true, such an 
appeal t'l made ; and why not ? IvanofT does 
not dare to say that these prosecutions and 
outrages are rat odious : that the shooting 
down of exiles at Yakutsk, the flogging of 
Madame Sihida on her bare body, the imprison- 
ment in solitary confinement of Volkhovsky for 
eight months, and his hberation without trial, 
besides six years solitary confinement before 
trial on other occasions, tliat the penal lile of 
educated men and women at the Akatoui or 
Kara mines, are not odious. 

Again, " Russians — so say the Nihilists — 
must struggle to conquer liberty, and if 
foreigners are unable to give them tangible 
support, it is still the duty of Russian patriots 
to call the attention of free countries to the call 
of liberty in Russia. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1894. 



Again, that we believe aad that we say ; and 
why not ? No country has won its freedom 
witnout struggling for it. It is to be won by 
the people of the county and not conferred on 
them by foreigners. But it is the duty of 
Russian patriots to call the attention of free 
countries to their cause ; and it is the duty of 
the dweller in those free countries to remember 
the pit from which they themselves have been 
digged, and to let Russian patriots know, that 
in their struggle for freedom, all men and 
women who love liberty are with them in 
spirit. 

Let me be very clear upon this point. I 
do not believe in violence, although I am 
unable to distinguish a greater criminality in 
the violent deeds of a certain section of Russian 
reformers, than in the violent deeds of the 
autocracy to which 1 have alluded. Violence 
begets violence. But I cannot sit in judgment, 
even upon these proceedings, until I have fairly 
estimated the political position in -Russia. In 
a country where there is no idea of the governed 
being represented in government ; where there 
is no power of remonstrance when wrong is 
done by that government ; where men cannot 
meet together to discuss its actions ; where the 
press may not speak for the oppressed ; where 
the home instead of being the castle, is invaded 
without notice and with impunity, and the 
inhabitants searched ; where men and women 
are arrested and imprisoned without knowing 
the why or the wherefore, kept long months 
'in solitary coafinement, and, without trial, 
banished ; where, if tried, no jury of their 
peers is to give the verdict, no cross-examin- 
ation of witnesses is allowed, no advocate is 
permitted freely to plead their cause ; where 
publicity, the true safe-guard of the innocent, 
18 banneid; where religion, commerce, every 
means of communication, education, every item 
which goes to make up life, are in the absolute 
direction and control of the government ; where 
the father loses his daughter, the wife her 
husband, without explanation or information, 
and every murmur is a crime ; I can understand 
that in such a land under such a condition of 
Society, the men who look for better things, and 
aim at change are driven to imitate the govern- 
ment which holds out before them treachery, 
espionage and violence, as the instruments 
which it uses. 

But to return to the article by Ivanoff and 
the charges he formulates against the Society 
of Friends of Russian Freedom. He says, 
" the readers of Prbb Russia are also informed 
that the opinion of foreigners is very influential 
.in Russia and is dreaded by the Russian 
government." 

Surely Ivanoflfs article shows this is correct ; 
but what a strange charge this is ! Either his 
view is a true one and foreign opinion has no 
effect in Russia, and the government care 



nothing about it, or our view is right, and the 
fact is as we state that foreign sympathy will 
encourage the faint-hearted and fearful to quit 
them like men and be strong, makes it dreaded 
by the government. Dreaded, because if once 
all the men and women who are opposed to the 
reginU dare to say so, the struggle is at an end. 
Even the autocracy of the Tzar must bow 
before the generally expressed will of the 
people. Without a blow, without violence, 
with resistless force, 5,000 persons with the 
courage and devotion of Madame Tzebrikova 
would overthrow despotism in Russia. 

The subtle but guarded personl attack must 
be left to those who are attacked to reply to if 
they should think it worth while, but there 
is one aspect of this matter which I feel to be 
really serious. 

The Tzar's government has succeeded in 
persuading the two great Republics of the 
United States and France to enter into alliance 
with it, an alliance which has for one of its objects 
the greater facility of obtaining possession of 
criminals who escape from Russia. Criminal 
is a wide and convenient word, and, the arch 
criminal is the man who wishes for freedom. 
Slowly but surely have these strange alliances 
been accomplished, and now the autocracy 
begins a further movement. England has 
made it her proudest boast that the exile and 
oppressed of all the people of the earth may 
find refuge with her. The suggestion that a 
political refugee, charged with comphcity in 
violent measuresagainst the then Emperor of the 
French,shouldbegiven tothat potentate, hurled 
from office one of our most powerful ministries 
led by Lord Palmerston himself. Perhaps the 
Tzar's government have forgotten all this ; 
perhaps they think that the free traditions of 
our free land have become obsolete ; perhaps 
they dream that they can turn the violent 
actions of evilly-disposed men in neighbouring 
nations to account, in getting the doors of the 
last refuge left for their political refugees 
closed against them. Certain it is that a news- 
paper warfare has begun in the Russian 
newspapers, in some foreign journals, in English 
magazines, with this end in view. This is, 
indeed, to those of us who long for the full 
success of that great reform movement in 
Russia, which aims at obtaining for it such tree 
and representative institutions as we have long 
enjoyed, not grievous but joyous. We have 
longed to have the other side of the case put 
forward that all men might be able to judge 
where the right lay. We longed that the 
attack against political right of asylum would 
be made openly, because we feared the insidious 
secret manceuvres of the unresting foe to 
freedom, and knew in this case also " in vain 
would snare 1>e spread in the sight of any 
bird." 

R. Spbncb Watson. 



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February i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



13 



Kennans English Campaign 

On theSth of January George Kennan began 
his oral campaign in England, on behalf of the 
Russian liberation movement. We say " oral" 
because the one carried on with his pen counts 
now its seventh year, and has already made the 
round of the civilized world. But the impres- 
sion conveyed, even by so able a pen as Mr. 
Kennan's, can never be so thrilling, convincing 
and ovet powering as when the same story is 
heard from the lips of the eyewitness, the 
charm of his truthful and noble personality 
being added to the effect of the facts given. 
This was fully realised by the large audience 
that gathered in Prince's Hall, Picadilly, when 
Mr. Kennan was welcomed in England and 
introduced to his first English audience by the 
Friends of Russian Freedom, represented by 
Dr. Spence Watson, as chairman, who was 
supported by the Countess of Carlisle, Mrs. 
Cobden Unwin, Mrs. C. Mallet, Miss Hesba 
Stretton, Mr. Poultney Bigeiow, Hon. Gilbert 
Coleridge, Mr. W. P. Byles, M.P., the Rev. J. 
Page Hopps, Mr. W. Mackenzie, Mr, E. J. C. 
Morton, M.P., Mr. Felix Moscheles and others. 
Dr. Spence Watson in his warm hearty way, 
impressed upon his hearers how much everyone 
was indebted to Mr. Kennan for having unveiled 
the truth, concerning a subject until then utterly 
unknown and misunderstood tliroughout the 
world, and then called for the lecturer, who 
was received with deafening applause. For 
several moments Mr. Kennan was standing, 
unable to begin, until the thunder of cheering 
should subside. . . . We may be sure it 
was loud enough to be echoed— by this time 
especially — in (official) Petersburg. . . . 

Then he began his story — " Political Exiles 
at Siberian Convict Mines" — a story of woe 
and courage, of base tyranny on the one side, 
and of unshaken, noble patriotism on the other. 
Half way through his lecture Mr. Kennan 
retired and returned with the dismal clanking 
of chains, and in convict dress : a pair of 
trousers made of coarse sacking, a shirt of the 
same material, a long, grey, shoddy overcoat of 
rough woollen cloth, a Tarn o'Shanter cap of 
the same material and a pair of bad shoes, or 
rather slippers. He told the story of the 
articles he wore and said that dress, which was 
intended to be a dress of shame had become one 
of honour through being worn by so many of 
the best and noblest spirits of Russia. 

Itwould be useless to repeathere Mr. Kennan's 
narrative : everyone may find the essence of it 
and the greater part of the particulars in his 
book, while that special eSectiveness that 
depended upon personal delivery could not be 
rendered. SufBce it to say, that eTcry word of 
the speaker stamped the hearts or minds of 
those present with the hot iron of truth. 

The Rev. Page Hopps, whose open letter to 



the Tzar we quote in another column, wrote it 
under the impression of what he heard from 
Mr. Kennan's tips that night. " Mr. Kennan," 
he said, "told us^and we have many very 
goolreasonsforhelieving— that in your Siberian 
prisons or mines are many of the finest and 
noblest spirits Russia ever produced^men and 
women who here would be our statesmen, 
teachers, reformers. It is this that specially com- 
mands our attention and sympathy. It is not 
the fault of the born statesman if he is pushed 
and beaten into stubborn but occult rebellion, 
nor is the reformer to blame if he is turned 
into a conspirator. What misery that patriotism 
should easily become a crime ; that love of 
constitutional liberty should readilj; qualify for 
exile ; that free speech and free writing should 
lead, not to honours, but to prison ; that 
even honest history should be made next to 
impossible on Russian soil," 

We are sure, this was the impression which 
every sincere listener to the lecture carried 
home with him. 

An enthusiastic vote of thanks was unani- 
mously awarded to the lecturer on the motion 
of Mr. S. Stepniak seconded by F. Volkhovsky. 
Mr. T. Fisher Unwin proposed a similar vote 
to the chairman, being seconded by Mr. F. 
Mosheles and thanks were heartily given. 

So with an enthusiastic and successful 
meeting in London, introduced by the Enghsh 
Friends of Russian Freedom, Mr. Kennan 
began his campaign. He began It at the right 
moment, as will be seen from Dr. S. Watson's 
and other articles in the present number; 
though the presence amongst the Friends of 
Russian Freedom of the most powerful English 
speaking advocate of the oppressed in Russia, 
would be enough at any time to muster their 
forces and double their enthusiasm. And 
indeed, at the first news of his arrival we see 
many of the best people stiring. 

The editor of the Chnsiian World suggests on 
January 4th, that ministers and clergymen 
would be doing a good work in announcing 
Mr. Kennan's lecture at Prince's Hall, on the 
8th, from the pulpit. Mr. Alfred Webb, M.P., 
writes, deeply regretting his absence from 
London on the 8th, it is the greater cause of 
regret to him on account of the "scurrilous 
attack " which has just appeared — and he adds, 
an attack that " I feel sure will rather attract 
than alienate support and sympathy." The 
Rev. Stopford Brooke, writes : " 1 am happy tt> 
add my name, as in iuU sympathy with the 
Friends of Russian Freedom." Mrs. Stuart, on 
behalf of her husband, Professor Stuart, M.P., 
writes: "My husband will be most happy 
to have his name placed on the reception 
committee." Letters of sympathy were received 
also from the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, Mr. 

John Ellis, M.P., and many others. Since the 
th, Mr. Kennan, has gone from town to town to 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1894. 



preach the gospel of truth and humanity, on 
behalf of the oppressed in Russia. He has 
lectured in' Leeds, Manchester, Birkenhead, 
Walsall, Liverpool, Wimbledon, Birmingham 
and West Norwood, and before his return 
will lecture at Finsbury Circus, Gloucester, at 
the Birkbeck Institute, at Cardiff, Plymouth 
and other places. 

The reputation he won for himself in England 
not only as an able and just advocate of the 
oppressed, but for literary ability in the articles 
which appeared in the Century, in itself secures 
him an audience throughout England. From 
a private correspondent in Leeds, we hear : 
" Mr. Kennan spoke for i J hours to an audience 
of between two and three thousand. He was 
hstened to with the deepest and most wrapt 
attention and at times many of his audience 
were in tears. It was a splendid success." 
And from another: '\The Colosseum, the biggest 
hall in Yorkshire, was crowded — the audience 
was deeply moved." 

There can be no doubt that Mr. Kennan's 
kctures in England will be a powerful factor in 
stirring that public opinion in England, which, 
made active through sympathy and based on 
facts and love of truth, is so dreaded by official 
Riissia. Every lecture George Kennan gives 
strengthens the po^^ition of the Friends of 
Russian Freedom and the Russian liberation 
movement. 



Financial A ccount of G. 
Kennan s Lecture on J-an. 8. 



Receipts. 






£ a. d. 


By Tickets sold— 








Previous to lecture 






... 36 6 


Taken at doors 






... 13 13 


Sale of literature 






... 014 6 


Donations— 








A friend 


£0 


8 




The Countess of Carlisle 


5 






Mr. jobn Ellis, M.P. ... 


5 






Mrs.Lyell 


5 






Mrs-Bi^ 














— 16 18 




f67 6 










Expenditure. 




£ 9. d. 


Hire of haU, etc 






.. 13 j6 9 


Printing 






.. 3 •? 6 


Postage 






.. I 12 iij 


Advertisements 






.. 3 10 3 


In band 






.. 45 8 6* 



£^7 6 o 

From the above account it will be seen that Mr. 
Kennan's lecture was as successful financially as in 
other respects, and this, we may add, was largely 
due to the ready and effective help we received from 
those on whom such success must depend. In the 
preliminary organisation much help was given by 



Mr. Fisher Unwin. Mr. Pease, Mr. and Mrs. Stepniak. 
There was no doubt that the public would be attracted 
by sucb a lecture ; the question was how to make i 
widely known. ThiswaseiTected in two ways. by tb 
press, and by many of the Friends of Russian 
Freedom sending out handbills in their correspoD' 
dence. Among those who assisted in this way were 
the Countess of Carlisle, Miss Esther M. Case and 
Mrs. Arthur Sidgwick, Messrs. P. H. Hood. Thoa. 
Laurie, C. Rogers, J. G. Reid, and Renwick Seager. 
As to the press we owe thanks to the Daily ChronicU, 
the Wcslminstir Gaztllc, the Birmingham Daily Poit, 
the Coming Day, the Jewish ChronicU, the Jeivish 
World, the Christian World and others for calling the 
attention of the public to the meeting. Our best 
thanks are due also to Messrs. Bunipus, Tones Evans, 
Lamley and Waters who undertook to sell tickets 
for us. At the lecture Itself help was needed and 
readily and efficiently given by those who acted ai 
stewards and sellers of literature. Invaluable assist* 
ance was given by Miss Hargrave, Mrs. Rix, Miss 
Roche, Mrs. Sparling, Mrs. Felix Moscheles, Mrs. 
Voynich and Mr. Fisher Unwin. 



TAe American Abrogation 
Petition. 

The American edition of Free Russia for 
December, contains the substance of a "draft 
of general petition," just issued by the Society 
for the Abrogation of the Russian Extradition 
Treaty, addressed to the President, Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

Want of space prevents us from producing 
it, but the arguments of the petitioners are 
divided into two parts (i) those against any 
extradition treaty with the Tzar (2) specific 
objections to this treaty. They regard an 
extradition treaty between two countries aa 
equivalent to a vote of confidence between those 
countries. Between the judical institutions of 
the two countries in question no similarity exists. 

They admit the evil of protecting malefactors 
of every dye, but in the present imperfect state 
of the criminal codes of most nations they feel 
it a lesser evil than becoming the accomplices 
of such governments as the Russian. 

They regard the struggle for freedom in 
Russia as part of the general revolution which 
is gradually transferring the government of the 
nation, from the hands of the few, to those of 
the people. They do not feel justified in taking 
action which would be interpreted as taking 
side with the Russian government in this great 
struggle between it and the people. 

SptciHc objectioHS to this treaty. Fugitives if 
surrendered may be tried in Russia by court 
martial, on no greater evidence than is necessary 
for a committal in America. It includes 
forgery among extraditable offences, and 30 
includes among extraditable persons all those 
who, unable to obtain a passport from the 
government, have forged passports. 

It regards Art. Ill,, which provides "that 
attempts against the life of the head of the 



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February i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



goverDmenC or persons of his family shall not 
be considered political oSences/'as inexpedient, 
for it is treating political offenders as common 
criminals for purposes of extradition, whereas, 
neither in their trials or in their punishments 
are they treated as common criminals in Russia, 
for trial by jury is denied them, and capital 
punishment, abolished for common crimes, is 
awarded. 

Out of the 34 extradition treaties of the 
United States only two have this clause, viz., 
liiose with Belgium and Luxembourg; States in 
which there is a free press and an independent 
judiciary. Again Great Britain and Switzerland 
have DO such clause in any of their treaties. 

Further, there is no safeguard thai fugitives 
delivered may not be tried and punished for an 
act other than that which formed the ground 
of his surrender." 

N.B.— Praclical steps are being taken by the Society 
tor the Abrogation of the Russian Extradition Treaty to 
obtain signatures to the petition. One of the methods 
, adopted has been to insert a blank page for signaluies in 
every copy of the American edit ion of F. R . for Jan ., which 
each receiver of thai periodical is asked to cut out and 
having obtained signatures to send it to the Secretary. 



A Cry of Despair. 

This letter byapolilical admimstrativt exile, was written 
10 a friend in European Russia, whom we asked to 
' s author. Our message was posted 



1893, could the letter be answered from Kolymsk by reluni 



intelligent, noble-hearted man, longing to be useful and 
to share in (he toils, joys and sorrows oF his brethren, 
who feels that he is gradually sinking into the swamp of 
ph]|sical d^radation and moral and mental indilfereDce. 
This is worst, a thousand times worse, than death I We 
would draw the attention of our readers to the fact that 
those whose fate is dsscribed here were not guilty of 
sharing in any terrorist plot. Their worst offence was 
sharing in propaganda and organisation (or the purpose 
of propaganda. Perhaps a milder sentence might have 
been passed on some of them if the real oHence in the 
eyes of thegovernment had not been that they were Jews. 
In the January issue of the American edition of Krbb 
ItussiA another interesting letter from the same region 
is published, which, from lack of space, we reserve for 
next month. 

Sredne Kolymsk, '^'■'■^' June, 1893. 
It is now more than three years that we have 
been living in this forgotten and Godforsaken 
arctic den, beyond the boundaries of civilisation, 
shut away from all possibility of intellectual life. 
The post arrives regularly only once in three 
months. The punishment of exile to Kolymsk 
has evidently been abandoned for various substi- 
tutes of an equally unattractive character, but 

'This is not on]/ possible but probable as there is 
precedent for this breach of faith on the part of the 
Russian government, in some cases of which we will 
write further. 

*■ A Siberian " Town " of 600 inhabitants (men, women 
and childreu included) under G7 deg. to min. of 
N. latitude and 174 deg. 50 min longitude. 



within the confines of our " Pleasant Fatherland." 
For over two years no new exiles have arrived 
here, and now more than a third of the forced 
dwellers in the place have left it, either for 
European Russia, or for some more inhabited 
part of Siberia. Others are to leave during 1 893 
and 1894. Only we long-termed and life exiles 
will remain, doomed to shiver here alone in an 
utterly desert land. 

During the first period of my life here, I 
thought it would be an interesting work to send 
to my friends more or less detailed accounts of 
the peculiar conditions of life into which we, a 
little handful of Europeans, have suddenly been 
thrown ; conditions lo which we are as un6t to 
adapt ourselves as a little body of civilised travel- 
lers, shipwrecked on the coast of Greenland, 
would be to arrange their lives in accordance 
with the habits and circumstances of the native 
Eskimos. But most of my manuscripts never 
reached the persons to whom they were sent ; 
and now even the desire to write them is gone, 
My own amazement at the extraordinary sur- 
roundings here has grown fainter and fainter. 
Life in Kolymsk sucks everyone down into itself. 
It seems to me now like a far-off dream, that 
somewhere in the world there are big towns, 
fillet! with people, with large shops, with houses 
in several storeys, with pavements on which great 
crowds of people go to and fro ; that there are lands 
where the rivers begin to flow in February and 
do not freeze till November, where instead of 
snow-covered swamps, there are fields with thick, 
standing com and grass ; lands where there hve 
woods and gardens, with green leaves on the trees, 
where the people live on bread and varied 
vegetable food. For us, reality consists of a 
perpetually frozen desert, covered with little 
hillocks and overgrown with stunted larches, 
which can hardly force their roots through th*? 
eternally frozen soil ; a cold and filthy y»rta\ ; 
hardly fit to be called a human habitation, even 
by people accustomed to the poverty-stricken 
cabins of the Russian peasantry ; for food, rotting 
fish ; for clothing, such rags as are left of our 
European dress, and rough native garments of 
half-cured skins ; for the rest, solitude, silence and 
lifelessness. I think the ghosts that wandered 
mournfully along the banks of Acheron, lamenting 
aloud for their lost earthly life, must have felt 
what we feel, dragging out our lives alone on the 
banks of the river Kolyma. The utter lack of all 
aim or interest, forgetfulness of the past and 
indifference to the present, are steadily taking 
hold upon us all. There are only a few among 
our number who have had the courage and 
vitality to fling themselves head-first into the filthy 
swamp of local needs and desires, and to become 
defiled by it. These few have married native 
women (ugh I . . ) have provided themselves 
B-ith fishing tools and nets, bring up families of 

t Arctic savage's hut. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1894. 



children, and, litlle by little, grow Into the likeness 
of the natives among whom they live. All their 
thoughts are fixed upon preserving- and defending 
their frail existence from the attacks which savage 
nature makes upon it from all sides. In the 
summer they catch fish— for that matter we all 
catch fish in the summer, more or less — and shoot 
birds and reindeer ; in the winter they go into the 
toundral to barter with the Tchouktches for skins 
and reindeer flesh ; bring in provisions, chop 
wood, repair and improve their yiiHa, etc. 

As for the rest of us, we live how we can, caring 
little for our material condition so long as we have 
food enough to get along with for a bit. The 
loathsome reality that surrounds us we push away 
from us and try to forget, and live on old memories 
and useless hopes for a ray of light in the future ; 
or to speak more truly, do not live at all. We 
hardly ever read. We very seldom get a new 
book, paper or magazine, and never a foreign 
one. As for the old books that lie on our shelves, 
like rotten corpses, they have no longer any 
interest for any one. Every thing that has lain 
two or three years in Kolymsk is sickening to us, 
who loathe the very shadow of our surroundings. 

Forgive this letter being so short ; I would 
have written more in detail if I felt assured that 
what I write will ever reach you. 



A Beneficial Attack. 

The reactionary and semi- official Moscow Gazette 
(Moskovskiya Vfdomosli) has dedicated several long 
articles to the proRusaian movemeut in England, 
and though these articles are meant to strike 
a death. blow at the influence of the Friends of 
Russian Freedom, the only thing we have to say 
about them is : may the Gazette produce some 
more of the same kind in the course of time! 
The paper lias indeed done good work for us. The 
very existence of the present Russian regime is based 
on keeping the people, to a great extent, unaware of 
what is really going on in the world, and the more 
closely any fact is connected with the people's 
grievances, especially political ones, the more essen- 
tial it is, from the Government's point of view, to 
hush up the matter. Hence the rigour of the 
censorship, hence the Draconian laws about public 
speaking, hence the severity of the government 
towards any teaching not in accordance with its 
programmes. A subject, like the formation abroad 
of a society, which considers the present Russian 
bureaucratic absolutism, btrbarous and inconsistent 
with the genius and love of freedom of the^Russian 
people, and which is engaged in divulging and 
counteracting by legal means the crimes of that 
absolutism— such a subject is certainly one of those 
that are kept in Imperial Russia under the govern- 
mental thumb. No periodical would be suffered to 
touch on such a question, unless its object were to 
condemn the whole enterprise, and to proclaim the 
present Russian misrule to be the best in existence; 
if it ventured to do otherwise, the whole edition of 
the paper or review would be confiscated before 
being put into circulation, and the representatives 
% Arctic (wamp. 



of the periodical would be charged with high treason. 
Having thus no opportunity of treating the subject 
conscientiously, the independent Russian press very 
naturally passes it in silence. The clandestine 
press, certainly, speaks without reserve, but its 
circulation is always limited compared with that 
passed by the Censor. But fortunately for the good 
cause the Moscow Gazette thought it proper to use its 
privilege of moving about unhindered in the pro- 
hibited field ; and so it stepped forward and 
announced to the surprised Russian newspaper- 
reader the fact, that during the last " three " (really 
more than four) "yearstheattitudeof the English has 
changed greatly in favour of the Russian opposition 
and against the present Russian regime, so much so 
that it has become possible to found a society with 
the aim of "actively helping the Russian liberation 
movement b} winningpublic opinion for it by means of 
freeagitation,first in their own country and then among 
other civilised nations."'* " That is not all," says the 
paper. " The society is headed by a. committee, 
among whom there are ten Members of Parliament 
and many persons of note " — and the paper goes on 
to enumerate the names in order to prove to its 
readers that the Society is not to t>e looked upon as 
something insignificant, but that it is full of life and 
importance. " The Society has collected by sub- 
scription a good sum of money for the necessities of 
the cause it is promoting, and has had already an 
alarming success." The Moscow Gazette " cannot 
understand ' how on earth ' one of the most promi- 
nent English politicians has been won to the pro- 
Russian movement in England, yet there can be no 
doubt about the fact that the president of the 
Liberal and Radical Association of Great Britain, 
Sir (!) Robert Spence Watson, took the formation of 
the society up very warmly. That, however, was 
only the beginning." The reactionary paper fully 
agrees withiStepniak, whose pamphlet it quotes, when 
he tells us "(hat there was a lime when the English 
Liberals were (by misunderstanding) the most 
reUable and sincere friends of the Russian Govern- 
ment in the whole of Europe, but that that time is 
gone, and now lee find in their ranks our most ardent 
supporters." " As the reader will see, the blow to 
official Russia is indeed a heavy one I " exclaims the 
Gazette,} To complete the good work, the reader, 
who becomes interested in the propaganda carried 
on on behalf of the Russian Liberation, is informed 
that he can get some specimens of that literatuie 
without crossing the Russian frontier — pamphlets 
and periodicals published in London "are imported 
into Russia owing to the assistance of some friends 
and protectors in Russia," says the paper. 

II is, perhaps, the turn of our reader now not to 
understand "why on earth" the Moscow Gazette 
cboses to do all that propaganda for us. Yet it is 
easily explained, and that in a most encouraging 
manner. It means that the danger to bureaucratic 
absolutism in Russia, from the already aroused 
public opinion abroad is considered by the 
supporters of Russian official tyranny to be so great 
and formidable that they are obliged to risk the 
discussion of the subject. Therefore, the organ of 
the Russian reactionaries undertook a crusade 
against the whole movement. But as blundering is 
the inevitable fate of every blind or insincere 
defender of an iniquitous and hopeless case, the 
Gazelle began by trying to make people beUeve that 

• Mfiiioviiiya Vtdemoiii ot Nov. aiih (Doc. gthl i8q» 
t Mi»ktv,kiya Viiemaiki of Nov. aSth (Doc. lolb). 



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February i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



Miss Hesba SIrelton, for example, the Rev. Chu'les 
A. Berry or Mr. H. C. Stepheos, M.P., are working 
for anarchism with the puqiose of creating difficulties 
for the Russian Government, and thus compensating 
their nation in the future for the defeat, in 1885, by 
General Komarov, of the Afghans, directed by the 
Enghsb against Russia. This would do splendidly 
for a joke, but no reasonable man could possibly 
take it in earnest. He will pass with a smile the 
amusiog drum -beating and trumpet -blowing of the 
Moscow GatetU performed in a deserted field, and 
gratefully take notice of the information given by it. 
As to the impulses spurring the Enghsh to assume a 
certain attitude in the struggle between Russian 
patriotism and Russian officii misrule, the reason- 
able reader will turn for information elsewhere. He 
may lind it, for example, in the open letter addressed 
to the Tear of all the Russias by the Rev. J. Page 
Hopps in the columns of the Echo of Jan. lotb. :— 

" Do you ask what all this has to do with us 1 " 
writes that member of our General Committee. 
" Why we, here in London, should sit in judgment 
on your filthy and malignant prisons, and deplore the 
toss to Russia of many of her least selfish and 
brightest spirits ? You would not ask that if you 
knew our point of view— if you could see in us, not 
English men and women interfering with a foreign 
Government, but simply men and women who feel 
increasingly how much stronger are the ties of 
humanity than the ties of nationality. We are 
feeling, as never before, the profound truth of the 
ancient saying, ' God hath made of one blood all 
nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth,' 
and we are striving, with exceeding lon^g. to believe 
and applythe universal prayer, 'TbyluDgdom come, 
Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven.' 
Your prisoners are our brothers and sisters, and we 
sympathise with them, and plead for them, od the 
ground of our common humanity. Forgive me if I 
put our case too warmly, if I write too strongly, 
when I put tliis on record, that, as human beings 
who have inherited much from past sufferings and 
toils, we protest against the blasphemy against God 
which is shown in turning any portion of His world 
into hell, and the blasphemy against man which is 
showD in condemning human bemgs to drag out life 
amid the horrors of hopeless and worse than brutal 
filth and misery. 

" And now. Sire, though 1 just now partly disclaimed 
it, allow me to write as an EngUshman. 1 know 
that in many respects we are by no means so free 
firom the beam or the mote that we can afford to 
peer closely into our brother's eyes; but our fathers 
lon^ ago worked out their salvation from all that 
against which we now protest elsewhere; and we 
have earned our right to our protest." 

That is what sm Englishman has to say upon the 
point. Another, may be, would couch it somewhat 
differently, yet the essence, that homo sum el nihil 
humanum mihi aliemum esse into — that brotherly, 
irresistible longing to see others enjoy what we 
consider beneficial to ourselves— would be the same. 
It cannot be otherwise ; a child would understand 
that. It is inconceivable only to those whose 
covetous hearts and narrow mmds have reduced 
their feelings and ideals to the dark nutshell of their 
own limited natures, or whose profession it is to see 
high treason and intrigue everywhere. The worse 
for them, but none the worse for the good cause. 

The present number of Free Russia was com- 

gleted when we received firom Russia two clippings 
om the widely-read but never.beUeved Russian 



daily Novoe Vremya (New Times) accompanied by a 
letter, in which a Russian, speaking not onlv on his 
own behalf, but on that of a. number of people, says : 
" We feel disgusted with those articles, but it is 
hardly possible to say anything upon the subject in 
the Russian newspapers, and even supposing some- 
thing might be introduced, it would be of necessity 
weak and colourless. You, on the contrary, can 
easily make everything clear." 

We are very sorry the message reached us too 
late to t>e treated in the present issue of Free 
Russia. We are too much pressed both for time 
and space. Next month, however, we shall have as 
good fun about if, as Uterary flowers with so strong 
an aroma as that of the Novoi VrimyU do not fade 
away in a month or two. F. Volkhovskv. 



J^ews & Notes of the Month. 

The news about an attempt on the life of 
the Tzar and also of a fight between the 
gendarmes and some revolutionists, surprised 
at a meeting near Moscow, was circulated 
some time ago in the English press. Our 
Russian correspondents now most positively 
deny both. 

One of the most rigid adherents of practical 
Christianity as preached by Count Leo Tosltoy 
— Prince Demetrius Khilk6v — did not baptise 
his twochildren (three and four years old). This 
was reported by his relatives (who are orthodox 
bigots and courtiers) to the Tzar, and by his 
personal order Khilkov and his wife were 
robbed of their children. Several gendarmes, 
headed by the children's grandmother, came 
to the house of their unfortunate parents and 
took the little ones by violence to be brought 
up in the orthodox creed. Khilkov, as a true 
adherent of the doctrine of non-resistance, did 
not try to resist the kidnappers by main force. 
We should like to know, however, how, on 
such on occasion some of those would act 
who cannot find sufhciently strong language 
in condemnation of using force against outrages 
and atrocities by violence, under any circum- 
stances ? It is very instructive to note that the 
young Russian girl from whose private letter 
we take the information, though a " Tolstoyist " 
herself, does not seem to be very lenient in a 
case like that. Among other things she writes : 
" What can be more revolting, cruel and 
inhuman (1 do not say brutal, because brutes 
have a more highly developed feeling of equity 
in that line) than such an act, the very idea of 
which makes one's heart sink within one. It 
seems to me," she writes, " that the very stones 
must cry out againt such en act, emanating 
from and signed by a man who is himself the 
father of a family. . . . Imagine that it 
was you who were robbed of your child, the 
only reason being that you do not agree with 
other people's opinions which are forced upon 
you, and you have no wish to dissemble and lie." 



- 'cS^e 



FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1894. 



We get more and more confirmation of the 
butchery of the Roman Catholics in Kr6zhe. 
The number of those whose death was caused, 
including the drowned, is now estimated at 60. 
The number of the wounded is almost a hundred, 
and here is something new in connection with 
the horrible affair. We are informed that as 
soon as the rumour of the massacre reached 
St. Petersburg, the director of the department 
of foreign creeds (ministry df internal affairs) 
Prince M. R. Kantakouzen was despatched to 
Lithuania to make an inquiry into the matter. 
The present Govenor- General of Lithuania, 
Orhzevsky, was somewhat troubled about it. He 
did not mind the massacre, but he didnot like the 
universal scandal, which might result in bring- 
ing him into disgrace at St. Petersburg. He 
therefore tried to improve the jjrince's frame of 
mind and temper by showing him the cheering 
prospect of acquiring an enormous estate for a 
comparatively trifling sum, which, besides, he 
had not to pay at present. The estate in ques- 
tion was one called Loochay, formerly belonging 
to the Polish Count Mostovsky, and mortgaged 
m the Vilna Bank for the sum of ^"30,000. As 
Catholics are not allowed now to acquire any land 
property in Lithuania, it was to be sold to some 
orthodox Rus.<;ian, and so it was, to a high official 
for the sum of ^35,000. But as soon as General 
Orhzevsky noticed that Kantakouzen did not 
object to pleasant prospects, he ordered the 
estate to be sold to the prince for ^3o,ooo{that 
IS simply both the debt and the property to be 
transferred to him), at the same time pledging 
himself to the other official to secure him m the 
course of time a still better job. 

Our Cacassian correspondent writes, that In 
December last (old style) serious disturbances 
took place at the ecclesiastical seminary in 
Tiflis. The institution was closed and ali the 
undergraduates sent under guard to their 
respective homes in the country. Some special 
official was commissioned and is now on his 
way from St. Petersburg to Tiflis to investigate 
the case. Tlieclalmsoftheundergraduatesshow 
pretty clearly the reasons of the disturbances. 
They are as follows: i, the present despotic 
rule in the school (practiced by its inspector 
and his assistants) must cease ; 2, two assistant 
inspectors are to be discharged, as by their 
depravity they demoralise the pupils ; 3, books 
and periodicals both in Russian and in Georgian 
which are permitted by censorship for general 
circulation must not be denied to the under- 
graduates ; 4, teaching of the Georgian language 
must be introduced into the course of the semin- 
ary. So,besidessomespecial]ocalgrievances,itis 
again that stamping out of hght and the tendency 
to Russianise other nationalities that forced the 
youths into protest instead of leaving them to 
(heir studies I 



We are informed that Mr, Harry de Windt 
has gone to Saghalien island, and has a com- 
missi,on from the Russian government to 
lecture in England next season on Russian 
subjects. This is an interesting piece of news. 
We shall see what he has to say. As to his 
expedition to Saghalien, we hope it will result 
not only in a big tract about women, neckties 
and the cuisine of the island, as was the case 
with Mr. de Windt's Siberian travels. 

Some time ago the English papsrs announced that 
about forty Knights of the Military Order of St. 
George {much revered in Russia) were poisoned at 
the royal table, during the annual great dinner given 
by the Tzar in the Winter Palace to all the kmghts 
of thai Order. Now we are informed from a reliable 
source that the illness of those unfortunates was very 
like cholera attacks, and the reason of it was of a 
kind bardly to be expected at a royal dinner. It is 
an open secret that the lowerltabies at royal dinners, 
at which the less distinguished guests are seated, 
are served abominably ; and whereas all St, Peters- 
burgh uses filtered water, at the Winter Palace 
unaltered is chiefly used for the sake of cheapness. 
This time the meat of the lower tables was said to 
be worse than ever, and this rotten stuff, together 
with the water, produced an effect which proved 
more disastrous to the poor heroes than all the fire 
at Sebastopool, Sbipka and Plevna. 

The eulogizers of the present Russian government 
have made an unpardonable omission in not men- 
tioning the fact that now-a-days its rule is based on 
science. Tocorrectthat mistake we will communicate 
to our readers an iuteiesting document we have just 
received which proves that even espionage and police 
supervision are no more called so, but are known as 
" statistical researches." The short official note we 
are alluding to reached us from Germany, and runs 
as follows : — 

Ltgatimi Impiriali dc Rtiiiit, 

"' Co™") D«=- : 189' 

Jan. • -'4 
The luptRiAt. Mission, wanling some siatistical 
information concerning Itussian subjects studying in the 
stale of "•, has the honour of respectfully asking Mr. 
So-and-So to call within Ibe nexl few days at the offices 
of the mission between i and 3 p.m., Sundays e»cepled. 
and to bring the passport and certificate wiiich he had 
bad to produce for the local educational authorities. 

Secretary of (be Mission ••" 
Now, as the comment added to this document 
explains, the " statistical information " in the matter 



has not expired), to (questions tending to ascertain 
the amount of " political trustworthiness " of the 
student, etc. In Berlin the " statistical researches " 
are practised on a still larger scale. Some of the 
young Russians studying there, were asked confi- 
dential questions, whether they would not like to 
enter— for due remuneration— the ranks of the 
" statisticians " ; the lodgings of others were visited 
hy the " statisticians " in their abeeuce (if the 
" statisticians " could bribe or deceive the masters 
of the house), who would look through their papers. 
Science being international, some of these scientific 
people are in the service of the German police, and, 
as such, force theii entrance Into the lodging ; but 



, Coogle 



February i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



they receive also a salary firom the Russian authori- 
ties, aod some of them very naively complain that 
they get only 500 roubles (f 50) per year ! We are 
Bony to say that the Rusdan students do not 
appreciate tbat kind of science, and some of them 
are so disgusted with its exploits that they are 
leaving Berlin for other places. 

We are glad to say that with the beginuing of the 
New Year a new Russian independent periodical 
sprang up. It is a monthly leaflet. The Russian 
Worktng Man, aiming at political and social propa- 
ganda exclusively among working people. The 
periodical contrasts the position of the Russian 
worker with that of the foreign one to the evident 
disadvantage of the former, and explains it by the 
fact tbat in countries like England, for example, 
"the government is in the hands of the people, 
while with us (in Russia) the people are in^the hands 
of the government"; this state of things will last ao 
long as the working people dare not cry out loudly 
about their rights and wants. The first and main 
claim of the people which be urges is that of political 
freedom, ancl as component parts of this freedom he 
lays especial stress on a National Assembly elected 
by the people, and on freedom of speech and the 

Ereas. These rights must be used, in the first place, 
y the people in demand for land, for relief from the 
burden of taxes which at present ruin him, for 
schools, which shall in every part of Russia put an 
end to the ignorance of the people, and, finally, to 
begin a regular and open warfare with all the 
plunderers of the people, and with every injustice 
and evil on the Russian soil," 

This leaflet is printed in Paris, but the address 
where it is to be obtained is 15, Augustus Road, 
Hammersmith, London, W., and the address to 
which business communications and contributions 
should be sent is 37, Bouverie Road, London, N. 

A series of articles entitled " Russian Spies in 
England" has begun to appear in Tit Bits. The 
writer appears to know the subject about which he 
to writing, and we may state that the first article is 
free from exaggeration or sensationalism. 

On Jan, 16th. at Bank Street Chambers a meeting of 
the memtwrs aod friends of the Plymouth Branch at the 

S.F.R.F. was held to consider the following points : 

(t) The election of a president and an bon. secretary 
in the place of the Rev. Binos and Mr. Gilbert 
Slater, resigned. 
Ii) To consider a proposal to invite Mr. Geoq^ Kennan 

to deliver a lecture, elc. 
The business having been concluded, the meeting was 
adjourned until the :oth when Mr. Langdon H. Price 
I, Woodland Tenace, was elected chairman and Mr! 

iohn Adams, 14, St. Lawrence Road, hon. secretary, 
"he meeting also took steps to confirm the arrangement 
already made with Mr. Kennan, who will give his lecture 
on •' Poliiical Exiles in Siberia," in the Guildhall, 
Plymouth, on Friday, March and. The lecture will be 
fully illustrated by lime-light dissolving views. 



.m., a meeting of the 
-je S.F.R.F. wBsheld 
at which the airang-ments for Mr. Kennan's lecture on 
the aStb were completed, and a reading was given by 
Mr. H. M. Thompson from Mr. Harold Frederick's "The 



the successful efforts of the CardiO' r.R.F. 1 



business meetings interesting for the outsiders and the 
suggestive N.B. on their last circular notice : " Members 
are mviied to bring friends with Ihera to this meeting." 

The correspondence in the WisUth Mail between the 
Rev. E. R. S. Morgan and Mr. H. M. Thompson, which 
we noticed last month, bast>een continued at some length. 
The following pointsappeartoembrace the Rev. Morgan's 
objections to the wort proposed by the Cardiff Branch ; 
(i) That very few of its members are acquainted with the 
Russian language, (z) That " the time when the dignified 
patriotism of the senior House of Parliament alone 
prevents the Celtisation (and consequent disruption) of 
the empire" is not the moment to interest ourselves in 
the affairs of other nations. (3) That the Russian penal 
system is said by Dr. Lansdell (it it unfortunate, as the 
Rev. Morgan seems particular 00 the point, that the 
authority he quotes, as is pointed out by Mr, Tbampson, 
bad at the time of his flying visit to Sit>eria no knowledge 
of the Russian language) not to be as bad as it is painted. 
(4) Thai the Tzar is in reality tolerant of religious 
dillerence of opinion, the fact of the " bad times" which 
the Slundists are, by his admission, having, is apparently 
explaioed to the Rev. Morgan's mind, when he (fescriboi 
this creed as " Quakerism gone mad," 
I Mr. Thompson has answered every point as exhaus- 
tively as the limits of newspaper controversy allow. We 
would only add that the suggestion that the members of 
the Cardiff Branch of the S,F,R,F, should suspend its 
activity to watch with admiration the " dignified action 
of our senior House " is not likely to commend itself to 
them. Further, the argument, that withiti our limes our 
English prisons were a disgrace to the country, will only 
act as a fresh incentive to those who are exposing those 
of Russia. To write of religious persecution in Russia 
at the present time and to ignore the treatment of the 
Jews and lightly to excuse that of the Stundists, is 
simply to call on the members of the Cardiff branch for a 
repetition of those facts which it is part of their privilege 
to make known to the country at large. With all good 
will to Mr. Morgan, who is evidently a sincere and frank 
gentleman, we cannot help wishing him, in case he enters 
another time in controversy on Russian matters, to make 
bis luggage of information upon Russia equal to bis zeal 
and sincerity, then he would not mention eight Russian 
universities instead of ten ; he would not say that the 
Tzar is such becauu he is. in the first place, the head of 
the Russian Church, as he would know that belore the 
abolition of the Russian patriarchal, by Peter the Great, 
ihe Russian Tiars were never regarded as heads of the 
Church, though they had been already for a long time 
potentates of Russia and the Russians with unlimited 
power : be would not make many other blunders which 
we have no room to mention in detail, and then, perhaps, 
the haughtiness with which he treats the supposed ignor- 
ance of his adversaries would diminish in proportion to 
his own augmented knowledge. We would, in any case, 
express our gratitude to him for makiug a stir on the 
question, especially as we laam that through the contro- 
versy many people in Cardiff have become, for the first 
time, interested in the subject. 



The Stundists : the Stoty of 
a Great Religious Revolt. 

(Jas. Clarkb & Co., London, 1S93.) 
At the beginning of the Seventies the Church 
began to organise itself. Presbyters of districts were 
instituted, a register of members was kept, and a 
common fund for mutual support was formed. In 
1877-8 the weight of persecution began to be felt, 
and it is needless to say tbat when, soon alter the 
beginning of the present reign, Pobedonostsev 
became supreme in all matters relating \a 



, Google 



FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1894. 



"religion," the crnsade was carried on with the 
neatest cruelty^ and barbarity. Our writer remarks 
that " The nations of the West . . . . do not 
seem to realise that they have at their gates a Power 
more intolerant of religious liberty than was Spain 
in her worst days, and persecutors as unscrupulous 
and narrow-minded as Alva and Torquemada. How 
can they know it ? Russia works in secret ; her 
methods are underground, and her victims are 
voiceless. There is no press in Russia, worthy the 
name, to report and denounce each case of persecu- 
tion as it occurs. The trials of heretics are 
conducted with closed doors, the public being care- 
fully excluded. Russians tliemselves do not know a 
tenth of what is being done." 

The writer does not dwell at great length on the 
too -familiar story of the barbarities which are 

firactised on the religious martyrs of Russia. An 
nstanceor two he gives — those recounted on pages40 
aod42 entitleshim to the credit of sobriety of statement 



when he observes that " Religious intolerance is just 
as rampant in Russia to-day as it was in England 
daring the reign of the Tudors." When he goes on 
to say " It is only prevented from going to the 
extremes of personal torture and the public stake b^ 
the dread of Western opinion," he gives what is 
equivalent to an exhortation to alt those engaged in 
studying Russian questions and enlightening public 
opinion concerDtng them, to continue in their course. 
Yet the case does not appear a hopeful one at the 
moment, for, as be remarks, since t668 the policy of 
suppression has been supplanted by one of 
extermination. 

II remains to state that the valuable volume Ijnng 
before us is printed in excellent type for dissemina- 
tion as a cheap book (is. 6d.) ; it has a frontispiece 
and a good map of Southern Russia, showing the 
distribution of the Stundist body. 

H. M. Thompson. 
(Concludfd.) 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS OP RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

FnFthflF List of Babsorlptlons of 28. 6d. and apwards. — (In ckronologkal order.) 



Adam Gellgud, Chelsea ... U 

C A. Lytlleton, Herts ... 1 

Mrs. W. Walker, Leeds ... 

Miss Hartley, Yorks ... 

Maud A, Bigfis. London ... 

Mrs. Floyd, Berkswell ... 

F, ThompsoD. Birkenhead 

Chas. Pike. London ,,. 

Mrs. Stephens, Falmouth 
R. M. Maples, Bromley Park, 

Kent 

Miss E. M. Daltry, OMham 

Miss E. Gittins. Leicester 

R. Thompson, York ... 
L. Richardson, Newcastle- 

on-Tyne 

Clare Waite. Halifax ... 

A. Clarke. Heme Hill ... 

A. C, Marshall, Edinburgh 

Miss. J. Genn. Falmouth 
F. W. Dendy, NewcasHe- 

OD-Tyne | 

Mrs. & Miss C. Mawson, 

Gateslkead-on-Tyne ... 

IDhn Giaisyer, York ... 

.. Ashenford, Greenwich 
Mrs. Walker, Tunbridge 

Wells 

E. B. Prideaux, Modbury 

W. Robert*. Old Charlton 

E, 5. Curwen, London ... 

tRowniroe, York 

. Baker, York 



Miss Williams, London ... 10 
MissL.E.Shore.MaideDbead 3 

Mrs. Hertz, London ... 10 

G. H. Bailey, Manchester 1 

H. Rii, London 1 a 

MissM.C.Sharpe, London E 
Mrs. Armstrong, Virginia 



Wal 

John Bowing, Tilbury 

We rcgrel Ihil in the Lilt 



3™ (f 6 



Ltd.. Fails worth 

R. Proctor, Alloa, N.B. ... 2 i 
Yen. Archdeacon l.ester, 

Sueeasland 6 < 
iss Mallet ; 

J. Green, Kent 2 i 

Cameib Read, London .. G 

E. Youngbusband, Bristol 2 
Miss Drummond, Oxford 

(tor Stundist Fund) ... 10 

T. M. Dunmor, Lekesier G 
The late Heniy Richardson 

(perJ.W.Proctor.York) 10 
Herbert M. Thompson, 

Uaadaff 2S ' 

Per Herbert M.Thompson : 

Miss Alice FoxaU, Cardiff 5 

Mrs. Greener. Cardiff ... 6 

T. Nield, Manchester ... 2 

Paul Fiehig, Danzig ... 3 

MissSouibali, Birmingham 1 
Per Miss M. L. Wallace. 
Gateshead-on-Tyne i — 

Miss M. Vickers ... 6 

Miss M. Spence Watson 6 

Miss R. Spence Watson 6 

Miss Coulter 6 

Miss G. Potts 5 

Mrs. Lemon 2 

Mr. T. Blenkinsop ... 2 

Mr Maxwell 2 i 



1894. JANUABY, 
Herbert M. Thompson, 



10 

I Subtcripitani [or D«c, 



-17. 



Arthur H. Thompson, 

Hampstead 3 3 

Mrs.MurrayRoljand, London 6 

Mr. H. D. Webb, London 5 

Miss E. C. Grace, Bristol 6 

A.ConanDoyie.Switzerland 10 

Mrs. Mertz, Newcastle ... 1 



Dr. R. D. Roberts. London 
Mrs. Whitehead, Carlisle U 
MariaNorman, Kensington 
Lady D. Howard, Glasgow 
K. Thompson, Bridgewaler 
Miss Harbud, Cardiff ... 
E. H. Clothier. Penarth ... 
Cardiff Branch (donadon) 

Per Miss M. L. Wallace 
(continued) 

Miss Wallace 

Mr. P. Troltraan, New- 
cast le-on-Tyne ... C 
Mr. D. Richaidson, New- 

castle^in-Tyae ... ] 

Mr. G. Richardson, New- 

castle-on-Tyne .. 
Mr. L. Richardson ... D 
Mr. Joseph Perrin ... C 
Mr. N.Temperley, Gates- 
head D 

Mr. Percy Corder, New- 

castle-on-Tyne ... 

Mr. R. Nisbet. Newcaslle- 

on-Tyoe 

Miss Emily F. Jones, Tun- 
bridge Wells 

Louis F. Rowe, London ... CI 
"W .Vl\ll,lVttlmiHsltr Gaulle, 

London 

Mrs. E. CFellows, London C 
J. W, Procter, York ... 
H. Kiersch, Rotterdam ... 



Dr. & Mrs. Spence Watson, 
Gateshead SI 

A. C. Mavjes, Harrow ... : 

MissHesba Stretton, Ham 
Conmonj fi 

Mrs. Burnett, Walker-on- 

Tyne (Stundist Fund) 1 ■ 

Miss Isabella O. Ford, Leeds fi ' 



/ s. d. 
f 1 



rnpltoni for Dbc. two atott occur— foi ■■ Mis) Miry Cliuid 
ajid for " tin. Ilenicy, LiandatT,-' Mrs. Harley. Penulh, 



," should tie read Mn. Ilaryebiircb. 



Printed and Published by (Varh &. F-i 



iw. 113, Church Street. London, N.W.— February in, 1894. 

L;gi:zca by 



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Free Russia 

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gioclcfi? of 3fricn6s of 'glussian §frce6om. 

Registered as a Newspaper for Trans mlsel on Abroad. 



Vol. 5.— No. 8.] 



MABGH IST, 1694. 



[Okb PEMKy, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The English Society of Friends of Rnssian Freedom, fbnnded ia November, 1889, has for [to objecto to aid, 
to the eitent of its powers, the Russian patriots who are trying to obtain for their coantry that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western aatioos have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creed, who cannot witness with indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tsars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Russian people. Further contributions to the funds and 
farther work are needed and will be welcome. Membership is acquired by sending to the Treasurer an annnal 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Free Russia post free. 

Ail Contrfbutlona and Subiorlptloni to bs addrtsted to Dr. R. 8PENGE WAT80H, Bentham Grove, Gateshead 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

Those niarked with an *, form the Eiecntlve Committee. 



Rev. Stopford A. Broake. 'I 



•W. P. BJIs^ MP. 

Tiie Gounten of Osriisls. 

Rev. W. Moore Eda. 

J. E. EMit, M.P. 

Miss itabeila 0. Ford. 
■J. F. Green. 

L T. Hoblioiise- 



'Mils Mary iiar^rave. 

R. Maynard i.eonard. 

Thomas Lxiugh, M.P. 

Jolin Maodonald. 
•W. Maokenzie. 
■Mrt. Ohsrlei Mailat. 

S. T. Mander, i.P. 

E.J. 0. Morton, M.P. 

J. Fietoiisr Mouiton, Q.O. 



*Edward R. Psase. 
■Q. H. Perrit. 
*J. Ailanson Pioton, M.P. 
'Miss Ada Radlbrd. 

Mrs. Herbert Rix. 
•Herbert Rix. 

H. Roberts. 

Joshua Rowntree. 

Wm. Saunders, LO.a.M.P. 

Rev. Prof. Shuttleworth. 
"Mrs. Arthur Sidgwioh. 



■Adolphs Smith. 

Henry 0. Stephena M.P. 

Professor Stuart, M.P. 
"Herbert M. Thompson. 
■Wm. Thompson. 

J. a Trvttsr. 
*T. Fisher Unwrn. 
"Mrs. Wilfrid Voynioh. 

Mrs. E. Spanw Watson. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
■Miss Helen Webb, M.B. 



Henry J. Wilson, M.P. 

"Robert Spenoe Watson, LLO, Htm. Tytamirtr, Beosham Grove, Gateshead. 

"Miss Q. L Moliet, Hm. Sierttary, 132, Cromwell Road, Soatb Kenafngton, London, S.W. 



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y Google 



FREE RUSSIA. 



March i, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 

Nohs md News of the Month. — The Finnish 
Parliament. — Some more Horrors. — Belligerent 
Impotence (by F.V.) — A Voice ^rotn Siberia. — 
National Character and the Stundtsts (by F. Velk- 
hovsky). — Help for the Stundists. — Meetings. — 
Lecture List. — List of Subscribers. 

News & Notes of the Month. 

The Russian Ministry of Fmance has recently 
published an account of the governmental 
intervention in the sugar trade. It is somC' 
thing worth noticing. At the end of 1892 the 
Russian beet- sugar manufacturers formed a 
" syndicate" which raised the price of sugar 
far above that existing abroad, and kept it up 
by exporting great quantities of Russian sugar 
at a low price. Seeing this, the present 
minister thought it necessary to come to the aid 
of the Russian population. The simplest and 

i)lainest way to lower the price seemed to be the 
owering of the customs on foreign sugar. 
That, however, was considered to be " dan- 
gerous to the sugar trade in Russia," and 
therefore the minister asked, and on November 
i8th, 1892, obtained, the Tzar's sanction to buy 
foreign sugar at the government's expense, to 
import it and sell at the same exorbitant price 
to which it had been artificially raised, in order 
" to prevent the prices from further going up." 
Thus loads of sugar went to and fro, but the 
population bought their sugar as dearly as they 
did before. Why, then, was this trick played ? 
Perhaps the reader will understand it, if we tell 
him that both export and import were carried 
on through the South- Western Railway Group, 
in which Mr. Witte is a large shareholder, and 
that the purchase of foreign sugar was trans- 
acted through the " International Bank," an 
especially patronised favourite of the late 
Minister of Finance, and apparently of the 
present one too, 



The Russian temstvos last autumn 
manifested one depressing common feature — 
they ;ire all more or less in debt, they all com- 
plam of having no money, and do not see 
where to get any, as the arrears weighing on 
the taxpayers are enormous. Foi example, 
those of the Nijni Novgorod province amounted 
about the 1st of January, 1893, to ^128,600. 
Three of the district retnslvos ol the province of 
Kazan are in debt, one to the amount of 
^13,500 (whilst its yearly budget amounts to 
2'9,ooo), the other £"11,882, and a third 
^13,329; and there is nothing for them but 
to get still further into debt. Some of the 
temstvos are soliciting the government to enforce 
again the rule (which was abohshed some time 
ago) according to which the zemstvo rates should 
be collected before the state taxes ; others ask 



for credit at the State Bank; others a^ain 
implore the government for direct pecuniary 
help. But the government has to get its money 
from the same exhausted taxpayer from whom 
the temstvos cannot get it. It is evident that 
there is only one outlet from this position : to 
apply to the people and ask them what is to be 
done. But the plainest things are exactly those 
the present Russian government is least apt to 



The duties of the Russian "procurers" are 
twofold : (i) They are prosecutors for the 
Crown in criminal cases, and (a) they watch 
the l^ality of the proceedings of the other 
officials. The greater number of them care 
only for the first part of their duties, as to make 
one's self conspicuous in that way means 
promotion. But there are some who conscien- 
ciously try to do both. The radical Oukrainian 
paper Narod (" The People ") gives us two 
instances, showing how the latter part of the 
" procurers' " activity is received in St. Peters- 
burg. Last year the " procuror " of Poltava 
sent to the ministry a report of the illegal 
and cruel ill-treatment of the peasantry in the 
district of Zenkov, by the governor of the 
Poltava province, Tatishchev, but he was 
advised from St. Petersburg to keep quiet. 
The chief " procuror " in Kharkov, Zakrevsky, 
some time ago also denounced the local 
administration as acting illegally, but got no 
reply from St. Petersburg. Zakrevsky has now 
been appointed " Ober-procuror" in the Senate 
(in St. Petersburg), in order to remove him, 
without giving him offence, from the place where 
he was un pleasing to the administration. 

The compatriots in the United States of 
the Roman Catholic Lithuanifins who were 
butchered in the Kovno province (see Free 
Russia, 1894, pages 4 & iS) have met the news 
with an outburst of indignation. The Lithua- 
iniens in the States number over 200,000, and 
have started an active agitation on behalf of 
their oppressed and ill-treated fellow country- 
men and against the irresponsible Russian 
government. Church services in memory of 
the victims were held and largely attended in 
Chicago (III.), Shenandoah fPa.), Plymouth 
(Pa.) and other places a» well as many mass 
meetings. At one of them alone, 850 dollars 
were collected for the relief of the widows and 
orphans left behind by the martyrs of Kiozhe, 
and it was resolved that an agitation should 
be started in Russia for the purpose of inducing 
the Lithuanian youths to refuse obedience to 
the Russian authorities, when ordered to enter 
the ranks of the Russian army as recruits. No 
one can tell whether that form of protest will 
take root among the Lithuanians in Russia, 
but in any case we may be sure ihat the stir 
among their American compatriots will prove 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



BtimulatiDg and strengthening to the spirit of 
independence already aroused. The American 
Lithuaot^ns are well organised, have four news- 

Eapers in their own language and maintain a 
vely and friendly intercourse with their fellow- 
countrymen in Russia. 

The provincial governor of Kiev has ordered 
the local bookstore of the British Biblical 
Society to be closed for six months without 
giving any reasons for it. 

A peasant woman of the Province of Vyatka, 
applied to a certain Teptyakov saying that she had 
been mal-treated by one of the elders of the village, 
he having taken her by the hair and treated her 
with great brutality. Teplyakov referred her to the 
ZtMiki Nachalnik Anisaimov aa the authority who 
should deal with such a case. The only answer the 
poor woman received from Anissimov was, that it 
was simply a joke on the elder's part. Teplyakov then 
framed a complaint against A^ssimov, which she 
sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs. Speaking 
of Anissimov's activity in the province, T. said he 
had Rained neither the respect nor confidence of the 
inhabitants, as he had only come there with the idea 
of "cramming his pockets and playing jokes." 
The result of this was that Teplyakov was accused 
before a court of having used offensive and abusive 
language about an official in an official document. 
He was found guilty and sentenced to imprison- 
ment for three weeks. He appealed to the higher 
court, maintaining in tiis defence that he had had 
no wish to abuse or insult Anissimov ; that what 
he had said was undeniable fact, and that iu 
reality there were still graver charges to be made 
against that official. He told the court that during 
the famioe Anissimov had ordered peasant women 
to weave carpets for him, and had paid for these 
with the money that bad been entrusted to bim for 
free distribution among the starving peasants. He 
asked (be court to require Anissimov to give an 
account of this money. The Court of Appeal of 
Kazan sentenced Teplyakov to a month's imprisou. 
ment. 

After that the reader will be pleased to learn that 
the itmiki naehalniks, officials unknown as yet in the 
Astrakhan province wrill be introduced there in 
September next. 

One of our friends, a Pole by extraction, helping 
the cause of freedom in Russia in every way he 
can, writes us; "It would do good to spread your 

fublications among Poles in Posen and Gahcia. 
a these provinces there is a great deal of prejudice 
against the Russians, and many Polish patriots 
unjustly hate the Russian nation, instead of con- 
fining their hatred to the Russian absolutism. . . 
It is important to prove again and again that the 
dtinovniks, though they are so numerous, are not 
identical with the Russian nation." That is exactly 
what we are trying to prove, and, it seems, not 
without avail. Some radical and widely read PoUsh 
papers in Galicia, like Dziennik Polski (the Polish 
Diary) and Kurjer Lwotvski fthe Lembtrg Couritr) 
seem to understand quite clearly, that the true 
friends of Russian freedom cannot do otherwise 
than wish for liberty, development and home rule 
for tvtry nationality mduded m the present Russian 



Empire ; without the poUtical predominance of 
any one over the others ; accordingly, they help our 
propaganda. For example, we are glad to say, 
that beginning with this year, every Mumberof Free 
Russia is extensively and impartially reviewed in 
the literary supplement to the Couritr, entitled The 
Wuk and thus becomes known throughout the 
Polish -speaking people. We have not yet such 
friends in -Posen, 
y the V 
ours having & 
country, would try to introduce Fhee Russia into 
the columns of the Polish press in Posen. 

We all exult in successiul agitation, hut we do not 
always know at what price success is won, although 
we ought to, for it is both instructive and interesting. 
Something of that kind transpired at the last meeting 
of the Executive Committee, when a vote of thanks 
was unanimously passed to Miss G. Mallet. It 
appears that in order to well advertise Mr. Kennan's 
lecture of the 8th of January to the pubUc, Miss 
Mallet corresponded with so papers ana sent out by 
post 6,000 handbills, euclosing tnem in her private 
correspondence and despatching them tu friends 
who undertook to do the same. This system proved 
most effective and it would be good if others would 
do the same. 



In the Finnish Parliament, 

Just at present the Landtag of Finland is 
busy discussing the new project for the Finnish 
penal code. Before the project was submitted 
to the Landtag, a short speech of the Grand 
Duke's that is of Alexander III. was read. 
Among other things it said that the project 
was submitted to the Landtag in its " final form." 
This sentence created considerable stir in two 
of the four chambers of the Landtag. One of 
the members of the Chamber of Nobles, Mr. 
Haartman said that after a careful examination 
of the subject he had come to the conclusion 
that this sentence must be attributed to an 
Imj^fect translation into the Swedish language, 
otherwise he was entirely at a loss to under- 
stand the Imperial speech, and therefore, when 
considering this project, he paid attention ODly 
to the project itself and the introduction, in 
which no such words were to be found. 

Then, proceeding with his speech, he gave 
his comrades to understand that in case they 
had to publish the code in the form in which it 
was submitted to them, they should at the 
same time publish their alterations of it in a 
supplementary form. This, however, would be 
extremely inconvenient, and he would suggest 
to the parliamentary committee that they should 
find a way out of the difficulty. 

Simultaneously with this speech another was 
delivered in the Chamber of the Commons by 
the retired General Neovius. *' Inthe Imperial 
speech," said that gentleman, "the code is sub- 
mitted to the Commons in its final form. It is im- 
possible to suppose that this is meant to in any 
way restrict the constitutional right of the 



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March i, 1894. 



Commons to discuss, alter, or reject the 
Imperial proposals ; therefore this expression 
can only be considered as a pledge on the part 
of the government that it will not, in case 
the Commons alter or revise, make fresh 
propositions of the same kind as it has done 
before, and that there will be no delay in 
obtaining the royal sanction for this code, the 
enforcement of which the Commons expects 
with ever increasing eagerness." 

At the conclusion the speaker expressed the 
hope that the parliamentary committee would 
accept the same view of the subject. 



Some More Horrors. 

■ Some time ago a little paper in Vladivostok 
gave a few meagre hints of the honors which 
were going on in some places in the Sakhalien 
Island. These scraps of alarming news, which 
perhaps only found their way into the press 
because in these remote places the censorship 
is not so skilled as at the centres, were at once 
picked up and largely reprinted in the Moscow 
and St. Petersburg press. This, may be, drew 
the attention of the authorities to this God- 
forsaken island. Now we read in the Standard 
of February 10th the result of a governmental 
commission on the subject as follows : — 

The report is now to hand, and reveals a 
terrible tale of sufFering and crime. loGtances 
without number are recorded of merciless beatings 
and loppiog off of fingers and arms by sabre cuts, 
whilst cannibalism under stress of famine was a 
common occurrence, murder followed bv cannibalism 
being also frequently committed with tne sole object 
of putting an end to the misery of existence at Onor, 
ana instances are related where several convicts dis- 
puted before the authorities for the guilt of a murder. 

During the whole of iBgs there was an almost 
continuous string of convoys with corpses of convicts 
passing from Onor to Rykovskaya the residence of 
the authorities, and the bodies were so mutilated, 
and presented so pitiful a spectacle, that the report 
says the spectators could not look upon them withont 
tears. No inquiries, however were made, and the 
bodies were simply buried without ado. Neither of 
the two doctors living at Kykovslcaya ever visited 
Onor. In 1893 a band of convicts was handed over 
to an inspector, who could neither read nor write, to 
construct a. road from Onor to Rykovskaya. If anv 
convict failed in bis work he was at once put on half 
rations the next day, followed by a third of rations, 
and when he could work no more the inspector 
finished him with a revolver bullet, and entered his 
death in the books as bam disease. 

The principal author and encourager of all these 
atrocities is the convict Rbakov, who is a favourite 
of the commandant of the district, and has been 
made inspector-general. He has lately been recom- 
mended torgood service, and he and all his colleagues 
have succeeded hitherto in keeping their misdeeds 
secret from the world. The above details are not, 
it must be noted, a convict's tale, but are taken from 
an official government report, Mr. H, de Windt 
will probably visit this prison amongst others, and 
it will be curious to see what impression it will make 
upon him. 



Belligerent Impotence, 

We had neither time nor room in our last issue 
"to make everything clear" about the Woww Vrtmya 
articles, with which, as the reader may remember, 
the Russians who sent them to us " felt disgusted." 
But now we can do so, and we feel very grateful 
for them, as they make many interesting things 
quite clear. In the first place, they show now well 
Dr. Spence Watson's political keenness hit the mark 
when he at once pointed out that all these different 
attacks at the pro-Russian movement in the Moscow 
Gazetu, the New Review, and elsewhere were one 
and the same plot of Russian officialdom against 
the right of asylum in Great Britain. When he 
wrote his article for the present Number of Free 
Russu he knew notliing about the N. V., and now 
that paper not only confirms his surmise, but even 
shows the special plan adopted for the campaign. 
" In case of any international agreement against the 
Anarchist refugees, it is impossible to exclude the 
Russian refugees from their number, as there is no 
palpable difference between the farmer and the 
latter." These words are put in the lips of some 
imaginary Englishman. They are, in reahty, only 
a revelation of the cherished hope of Rus^an 
officialism of bringing about " general measures of 
repression which would, in the end, hamper the 
agitation of the Russian refugees as well," That 
is in no way English, we are sure. 

Here is something that represents the true English 
turn of mind better : — 

Hitherto we have steadily refused te lend our aid 
definitelv to the great phsJani of iDtemational police 
with which Europe is honeycombed, and which, wo 
vtaCure to assert, provokes quite as much as it overawes 
the red revolulionary movements of the contineol. A 
world subjected 10 the arbntrai? action of a great 
irrespoDsiblo police force, acting under secret instructions, 
and by methods absolutely at variance with democratic 
principles, would be a world which few freedom -loving 
English people would care to hve in. We see from 
the example of Russia what this would mean. 

That is from the Daily Chronicle of February 20th. 

As to the ideas atwut "Nihilists" circulating in 
this country, though there are, certainly, many who 
have no definite idea about what they are, there are 
already many others who feel, and quite rightly, a 
very distinct difference between their principles and 
position, and those of other revolutionary parties. 
Here is what we read in the Leeds Mercury of Jan. 5 : 

Gentlemen. — I read with interest lit Uadtr in yeur 
iiiue of lo-day, in taiicA AHareUim 11 diilinguiihtd /mm 
Rutiian NiAiiitm. Bui tkt dittinttum it muck grtaUr 
thaaytit txpriii ; il ii taiker a radicai aifferinei. The 
Anarchist, as his name implies, aims at the total abolition 
of all goveinmeiii in any shape or form ; the Russian 
Nihilist, on the other hand, fights against a corrupt and 
cruel despotism , in order toi obtain for the nation a con- 
slttutioaal, popular, and therefore strong, government. 

. . . , If we cannot approve of the methods of Itte 
attacks of the Nihilist on an unjust and corrupl tyranny, 
we can sympathise with his position and object. His 
justification is the existence of a bureaucratic despotism, 
which, in order to preserve itself, keeps the nation in 

Klitical, social, and intellectual servitude, and saps its 
it life by an elaborate system of oppressioQ and jobbery. 



nuy. . 
but. 



In Russia, owing to its size and its long periods of ti 
open war against the " government " is impossibfe . 
with this diBeicnce apart, the Russian Nihilists holds the 
same position to (he Russian " government " as the 
Netherlander rebel of the sixteenth century held towards 

Philip II. of Spain Yours, &c~H. Martih, 

2j, Crimbles-street, I,eeds, January 4th. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



as 



It IS only natural that the Nmoe Vremya corres- 
pondent, quotes Mr. IvanofT as an authority. But 
he should not represent Mr. IvanofTs writings as the 
opinions of the Ntw Review. The Russian reader is 
accustomed to the fact that the Russian monthlies 
as a rule tepresent definite views upon every political 
aod social question and would never insert an article 
which they could not sign as the expression of thefa- 
own opinions. The correspondent ascribes the same 
tendency to the Niw Review, as the representative of 
acertain current in the English public opinion, though 
he knows very well that the English and American 
monthlies, as a rule, are not organs of a certain party 
or creed, but often publish opposite opinions side 
by side. For example, the New Review, which 
printed Mr. Ivanofts article, also published F. 
Volldiovsky's ■■ Sufferings of PoUtical ExUes," whUe 
in Its number for February the reader will find some 
pages from the pen of S. Stepniak in reply to Mr. 

Another point upon which the writer should remem- 
her the Ninth Commandment is his mis-statement, 
that " the work between the English members of the 
S.F.R.F,and the handful otRussian refugees isdivided 
'"ff'sway: the English members contribute money, 
collect donations and carry on propaganda in the 
country, while the Russian refugees receive the 
funds and use them as they like without any control 
whatever." That is untrue from beginning to end, 
All the money coUected on behalf of the Friends of 
Russian Freedom is exclusively in English hands. 
Dr. Spence Watson accounts yearly for every penny, 
the account is read at the annual meeting of 
the Society, audited by chartered accountants and 
printed in Free Russia. 

The alarm produced in Russian official cuxtes, by 
the success the Uuth about Russia has had in this 
country.is revealed bylhe Novoe Vremya perhaps in a 
BtiU more striking manner than by the Moicow Gazelte. 

" In England the Russian revolutionists have 



the protection of the government and the sympathy 
of society. Thus they were enabled to found in 
London the Socitty of Friends of Russian Freedom, 



headed by a 'General Committee,' consisting of 
Members of Parliament and other esteemed English 
pouticians. A net of 'local branches' and 'com- 
mittees' is spread throughout England. In the 
metropolis, as well as in provincial centres, meetings 
and lectures are arranged and the collection of 
funds IS going on uninterruptedly. The writer in the 
New Revuw points out especially the demonstrations 
organised by the 'Society' in Newcastle, Leicester, 
bdinburgh and London in honour of the refugee, 
Volkhovsky," etc. 

Not everything is minutely correct in that gorgeous 
descnptlon of the good work done by the Friends of 
Russian Freedom, yet we could hardly eipect a more 
«>lendid ad vertisementforit—especiallyin the gagged 
Rusaianpress. We are very thankful foritindeed,and 
It tbere is anything to be regretted, it is only the fact 
mat, perhaps, it will not be believed to the extent it 
deserves to be, appearing in a paper which has the 
deserved reputation of uttering truth only by way of 
mistake, and being written by a person who has 
since disclaimed the responsibility of what he had 
written. It seems the Novoe Vremya correspondent, 
when supplying the Russian reader with a picture of 
the English and their ways of thinking and acting — 
corresponding far more to the effect which it was to 
produce in Russia than to reality— never expected 
that that picture would become known to the EDeUsh 
thenuelves. 



However, a short note appeared in the Daily News 
of the 30th of January, giving all the fun of the 
Novoe Vremya trumpet- blowing to the English reader 
concerning England's harbouring and fostering " the 
common enemy, a lamentable fact which very 
poignantlygrievesM. Souvorin, oitheNovoe Vremya," 

The London correspondent of the Novoe Vremya 
seems to have been so much alarmed by this, that 
be at once requested the editor, as stated in the 
D. N. of February 2nd, to say that the statements 
relative to the attitude of a section of the Liberal 
party towards Russian political refugees " were not 
his," but he gave them m his paper " as proceeding 
firom OD article in the January number of the New 
Review." That assertion was a little too bold, tor it 
was not the writer in the New Review who ascribes 
to the English people the fear that Russia will repay 
them for their reception of her exiles by " backing the 
anti-English agitation in Ireland,'' but it was the 
pure fabrication of the London correspondent of the 
Novoe Vremya. 

We imagine the English will be not a little amused 
at learning how easily they are lightened, and the 
tiagic and solemn tone of the iVowe Vremya will be 
met with a smile. Imagine for a moment the Russian 
official emissaries " backing the anti-English agita- 
tion in Ireland ,"particulalry at the moment when the 
Irish have accepted Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule 
Bill, and especially if the agitators are as clever as 
those writing in the Novoe Vremya, the New Review, 
or the Moscow Gazette for the benefit of the Russian 
govoromeot ! F. V. 



A Voice from Siberia, 

The following extract from a letter written 
by a political exile in the Trans- Baikal province 
of Siberia appeared in the American edition of 
Free Russia: 

" September, 1893. — To the citizen of the 
Free Country from a friend lingering in servi- 
tude in Siberia my greeting and respect. Since 
you left our forsaken country some changes have 
occurifid in the conditions of our life. Anew«A(U« 
came denying us the right to either call ourselves 
or add to our signatures the words '^itifol exile.' 
Wemust now simply use the word «A;t/« — the same 
as common criminals. Some of our comrades 
protested, but they were forced to obey it. In 
Verkhoyansk we nearly bad a new Yakoubk 
massacre of political exiles. OurfriendLebedicff, 
living in a ouAws (village) near by became insane. 
OuicolonydecidedtosendBagryanovsky tobiin 
as a nurse. The chief of police {tspravnik) agreed 
to our proposition, but at the last moment, when 
B. was ready to go, changed his mind and stopped 
him. Bagryanovsky wrote a letter to the ispramtk 
in which he says : ' I do not know how to 
characterise your action, and for that reason 
I leave space for you to put in the proper 
epithet.' The ispravnik got angry, and decided 
to teach a lesson to the politicals. A few days 
later, while the exiles were sitting one evening m 
a house, engaged in friendly conversation, a 
mob of armed men suddenly broke in, and 
when asked what tbf y wanted, they said they 
came by order of the itpraimk to seaicb the 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



March i, 1894. 



house and effect an arrest, but who was to be 
arrested the police did not know. It was only 
by the tact and clear-headedness of the exiles 
that a terrible slaughter was avoided, and all 
were arrested without bloodshed. The ispravnik 
at once sent a report to the governor of 
a revolt of the political exiles, stating 
that they had all been put under arrest. 
Although the judicial commission of investiga- 
tion could not find any trace of criminal action 
upon the part of the criminal exiles, the indict- 
ment is still hanging over them. Do not forget 
your Mends in Siberia. I am sorry I am too 
old to be able to start a new life m the New 
World ; were it not for this I should throw ofi 
my chains and once more in my life take a full 
breath of pure and free air in a free country. 
" Freedom." 



National Character and 
Stundism. 

" The Stundists : Tbe Story of a Great Religious 
Revolt." Jas. Clarke & Co., London, 1893. Price 
IS. 6d. 

Agood book only gains in itsefTectivenesBifits weak 
point is clearly set forth. We trust, therefore, that 
we shall not be understood as trying to diminish the 
value of the excellent work mentioned, if we say that 
the author of " The Stundists," possessing a 
tborougb knowledge of the subject he is writing 
upon, is not so weU acquainted with tbe life of the 
Russian people at large, especially of the Great 
Russians, inhabiting tbe central and northern pro- 
vinces of the empire. This, together with his 
enthusiastic devotion to evangelism, leads him, for 
example, to overestimate the virtues of the German 
colonists in Oukrainia and to underrate the charac- 
ter and abilities of the Russiao peasant. There are 
Germans and Germans. Admitting gladly that 
many of them quite correspond to the unknown 
author's description, we decUne to agree that as a 
whole, " it was in no stingy or superior way that 
these German pietists treated their Russian de- 
pendents," or that piety always prevented them 
trom acts which can hardly be called Christian. 
Suffice it to say that there existed among those 
Germans a proverb — " Who drives with oxen is 
himself an ox " — a contemptuous allu^n to the 
Oukrainien ; and, too, whenever a boree-stealer was 
caught by them he was beaten in such a way that 
be never recovered, the blows being administered on 
a board wrapped in felt and put on the thiefs back, 
so as to ^event any marks of the thrashing on his 
body. The author's mentioning the " German 
moneylender " (page 3) is also signincant. It was not 
difficult tor tbe German colonists to make their 
settlements in the " httle paradises" of South 
Russia. They received from the Russian govern- 
ment i6z acres of land perbeadfree of charge ; they 
had not to pay taxes for a long period ; they were 
fairiy independent of tbe Russian bureaucracy, self- 
goveromeot being granted them as a privilege, and 
no recruits being raised among them, while the 
Russian peasant, who never got more than 40 acres, 
waa harrasBed cither by his " owner " or by the 
police, and had to give away everything he bad, 
either in money, in produce, or in Idn. The author 



also attributes to the influence of Stundism that 
cleanliness, neatness and love of flowers and 
foLage (pp. 63, 65, etc.), which are tbe strikuig 
national features of the Oukrainiens (or Little 
Russians), and are suggested even by their national 
customs. It is the fashion with every young Oukra- 
Tnien peasant to shave the beard, on the contrarv of 
the Great Russian, to wear it; and the national colour 
for his shirt is white, while tbe Great Russian likes 
his red. Every Oukraluien peasant woman prides 
herself on having her hut whitewashed, and even the 
earthen floor cleanly smeared with clay. Flowers 
and trees play a very prominent and poetical part 
in the popular O Jkralmen songs, and a Little Rus^ 
b inchned to plant a cherry tree, an oak, or a poplar 
near his house, while the Great Russian would cut 
down even the trees he would find at the place he 
came to settle in, not to interfere with the s^ht of a 
vast horizon. 

A misunderstanding of the national character and 
ideas, both of Great Russians and Oukrainiens, leads 
our author to even graver mistakes than those 
already pointed out. It is a well known fact that 
Stundism is far more popular with the Little Russians 
than the Great Russians, though not to the extent our 
author seems to insist upon (p. 19). The explanation 
of the fact, according to our author, Is that " the 
stolid, phlegmatic andsomewhat stupid Great Russian 
evinced litUe or no sympathy with tbe Protestant 
tenets, and held stubbornly to Am orthodoxy." The 
latter can hardly be said of a race which counts at 
least eight millions ofsectarians of every description, 
wliile among the Little Russians there are very few 
except the Stundists. Among the Great RobsImib 
dissent from orthodoxy was always so strong tbat_ its 
influence was great in political movements boUi during 
tbe boyhood of Peter I. and under Catherine II., while 
tbe Oukrainiens carried on stubborn wars against 
the Poles to defend their orthodoxy. Nor are tbe 
characteristics given of the Great Russian by any 
means happy. The Oukrainien is certainly more 
slow, more phlegmatic, outwardly at least, than tbe 
Great Russian, his mind being of a contemplative 
turn. His religious feehng is more a longmg for 
righteousness than anything else ; he therefore does 
not pay much attention to the outward side of 
rebgion. The Great Russsian is perhaps ijuicker ; he 
has a speculative turn of mind, but his reb^ous 
feeling, as a feeling, is not deep. For him rehgion 
is more a matter of speculation and formal con- 
formity to a certain dogma. That is why the greater 
number of religious sects in Great Russia are based 
on some compUcated and sometimes perverted 
interpretation of tbe Scripture or tbe writings of 
some saints. It is only natural, therefore, that a 
religious movement based exclusively on the longing 
for inward peace on the one side, and on the 
teachings ot the Gospel how to live on the other, 
without paying any attention to ritual or to 
theological subtleties, was a real emanation of the 
Oukrainien national character, but not very much in 
accordance with that of the Great Russians. How far 
our opinion is right tbe reader can gather from the 
following : — In 1874 a yonn^ explorer made a tour in 
the Kherson province, gomg on foot, in peasant 
dress, firom one Stundist viUage to another. He 
found that the nearer the place was to tbe Germans 
the more Stundism had the character of pietism, and 
tbe more tbe doctrine of salvation through faith was 
predominant ', but tbe farther he went, that is, tbe 
more tbe Oukrainiens were left to their natural 
tendencies, tbe more Stundism liecame practical 



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March I, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



Cbristiaiiitjr, ratber a school of good righteoas life, 
and the more the doctriae of salvation by means of 
good deeds came to the front. 

Were the esteemed author better acouaiated with 
the life of the people at large, he would not talk so 
decidedly about " the folly of the Russian communal 
system of land tenure." The " folly" of a system 
which was adopted in some places by those very 
German colonists whom our author speaks so highly 
of — and adopted after they bad tried the principl« 
of personal property for centuries — cannot be so 
altogether foolish as it may seem to some people 
brought up in different surroundings und ideas. The 
Stundist does not keep to the system because he is 
an Oukralnien, who is far more an individualist than 
a Great Russian, because the past has not baqueathed 
to him that form of land teoare. But this proves 
nothing against the system. F, Volkhovskv. 

Help for the Stundists. 

Neither the English Nonconformists nor the 
Friends of Russian Freedom have shown themselves 
indilTerent to the sufferings of the Russian 
Evangelists. The wants of the persecuted are 
twofold— physical and spiritual. The Christian 
World deserves the credit of starting a Stundist 
Fund, by means of which, during the last two years, 
money has been distributed among Stundists whose 
homes have been broken up, or whose occupations 
have been taken from them, or who have been 
enled. But side by side with the want of comfort 
the Russian Evangelists feel another hunger and 
thirst proceeding &om the utter lack of suitable 
literature, especially in their own native language, 
which is different from the official and literary 
Russian. To supply them with such literature 
became the problem taken up by a handful of men 
residing mostly in Galicia (Austria). Such were 
Ivan Franko, a well-known Oukruoien novelist and 
poet (Austria, Lemberg, Bajki, Gluboka ulica, 7), 



Michael Pavlik, editor of the Oukralnien 



Narod (Austria, Kolomyja, Zamkova ulica), Itfichael 
Drogomanov, Professor of History at the Sofia 
University (Bulgaria), P. Koulish, the translator of 
the Gospel into the Oukralnien language, and others. 
They have published some excellent little tracts in 
OukrainicQ, such as " About the Brotherhood of the 
Baptists in Oukraina," " The Evangelical Creed in 
Old England" (about Wycliffe), "Tobias' Words" 
— the story of Tobias in verse, &c. For further 
publication of soch literature a fund was started in 
Galicia by Mr. Ivan Franco, and our Society has 
already received a few contributions towards il. 
We should be glad to learn of some more, as the 
spiritual hunger of the Stundist is great, but hardly 
any food is provided. Contributions may be sent 
either through our Society or direct to Mr. Franko 
or Ur. Pavlik, to their addresses respectively. 



Meetings. 



jscts and work of the S.F.R.P. ; 
also for reprinting the lettecwriltenby Mdme.Tzebrikova 
to the Tiar, and for answering attacks on Ibe Sodely 
that hod recently appeared in several English and Russian 
papers, in connection with the withdrawal from the 
General Coniniittee of the two Government Ministera, 
Mr. Arthnr Aclond and Mr. Shaw Lefevre: and on the 
motion of Mr. Herbert Thompson it was resoEved that a 
Sub-Cora railtee should be fonned to consider the dedr- 
ability of printing or reprinting pamphlets, and of 
snpptyiti); newspapers with information, and to decide 
the question of answering the speda] charges which had 
been made against the Society. It was resolved that this 
Sub^Committee should make a report to next meeting of 
the Eieculive Committee. (3) The Hon. Secretary 
reported that (he sum of £^z gs. 6d. (including donatioDs) 
bad been cleared on Mr. Kennan's lecture on January 
8tb, and read letters from many M.P.'s and other 
distinguished persons regcelling their inability to be 
present on that occasion. On the motion of Hr. Volk- 
bovsky a vote of thanks was passed to the Hon. Sec. 

Lbeds Branch. — We learn from the Hon. Sec., Mr 
H, Rothstein, 87, Byron Street, that our branch (here 
finds itself in a better position than it was a year ago. 
The Secretary has the co-operation of the Rev. H. Martin, 
whose letter is quoted in another column. In March a 
memt>ers' meeting will be held to elect a new committee, 
and the branch hopes to hold a public meeting, at which 
a lecture will be delivered, in April, 

Plvmouth Branch (Hon. Sec., Mr, John Adams, 1 



St. Lawrence Road). ^Arrangements have been completed 
by the Plymouth Branch for Mr. Ketman's lecture on 
March 2Qd. The subject of Russian Freedom has Ijeen 



,P"P«^ manifMted. 



Herbert Thompson in the chair, Mr. J. F. Green, Miss 
Hargrave, Mrs. Mallet, Miss Radford, Mrs, Voynich, 
Mr. Mackenzie, Mr, Pease, Mr. W, Thompson, Mr. Ferris, 



Hr, Rii, Mr, Fisher Unwin, and the Hon. Sec., also Mr, 
Voynich, Mr, Volkhovsky and Mr. Stepniak, (i) Letters 
apologising {or absence were read from Dr. Spence 
Watson, Mrs. A. Sidgwick, Mr. Bytes, M.P., Mr. E. 
Morion. M.P., and Mr. AUanson Pictoo, M,P. (3) 
Proposals were brought before the committee for sup- having acquired 



armly taken up by the Press, and the meeting, which is 
to be held in the Guildhall, is conlidently expected to be 
a great success. 

NswcASTLa-oH-TvNR BRAttcH (Hon. Sec., Miss I^ine, 
33. Hutt Street, Gateshead).— On Sund», February 4lh, 
Mr. Kennao delivered a lecture on " Russian Political 
Exiles " to a deeply interested andience of more than 
3,000. On Monday evening Mr. Kennan lectured on 
" Political Exiles at the Siberian Convict Mines," this 
time nnder the ansplces of the S.F.R.F. Fewer people 
were present, but no less enthusiasm and Interest were 
manifested. A vote of thanks to Mr. Kennan was pro- 
posed by Dr. Spence Watson and cordially seconded by 
Dr. Oliver. The financial side of this lecture Is as 
follows :— Receipts ; By tickets sold, l'x% igs. 4d, ; 
sale of Free Russia, 4s, 8d. ; donation, 5s. — £^1 ge, od. 
Expenditure : Hire of hidl, &c., ^3 4s. ; advertisements, 
ll 8s. 5d. ; printing, /» ss. 6d. ; balance remitted to 
treasurer, ,£'10 iis, id. — /z3 9s. — A committee meeting 
was held on February 8th, when it was resolved to 
arrange a short series of lectures on " The History of 
Russia," and to invite Dr. Spence Watson to deliver the 
first on " The Condition of the Russian Peasantry." 

Habtinos — Through the kindness of Mr, Alexander 
Milne, a lecture upon Russia has tMen arranged for the 
15th March, to be delivered at the University School, 
Hastings, by Mrs, Charles Mallet, with a view to the 
formation of a Hastings Branch of the S.F.R.F. 

During the month of February, among others, the 
following lectures were delivered ; — 

On the 5tb, by F, Volkhovsky, for the United Liberal 
Club, Hull. The president of the Club, Mr. James 
Reckitt, 1.P-, was in the choir, snpported by other well- 
known Uberals of the place, and great sympathy to the 
cause was shown. The sale of literature exceeded las. 

On Sunday, the nth, Mrs. Mallet lectured at the 
Wandsworth Liberal Club, 

On the i3th, F, Volkhovsky lectured for the Heaton 
Chapel Literary and Philosophical Society (near Stock- 
port), Alderman Forrest Ijexng in the chair. Great 
enthutiasm was manifested, anil worm speeches delivered 
In nuppon of the pro-Russion movement. The sole of 
cneap literature exceeded /t, and we may rely on 
ig acquired some new F.R.F. on that oecasloa. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



March i, 1894. 



On Sandajr, ihe iSih, Mn. Charles Mallet lectured at 
Field Lane Chapel, Forest Gale, to an aadleoca of Coo 
people, who evincnl deep sympathy with the caaie o( 
Freedom Is Russia and a hearty appreciation of the 

At 8.30 the tame evening Mrs. Mallei rave her lecture, 
"Russia: Her Patriots and Prisons" (illustrated with 
lime-light pictarea), to the members of the Hatcham 
Lilieral Club, by whom she was received with enthasiastic 
applause. 

On Februan z6th Mr, Stepniak lectured to the North 
St. Pancras Women'i Liberal Association. 

But the most effective work in the lecturln;; line has 
been done bv our eminent guest Mr. Georfie Kennan, who 
has lectnrea during the last month in Cork, Newcastle, 
Lancaster .Sunderland, Wimbledon, LondonI[ist.,Birkbeck 
Inst., West Norwood, Harewood (near Leeds), Middles- 
brough, Cambridge, Helibury, and to the London Ethical 
Society. Thelastlectureofthemonth— onlheiSth ult.— 
was delivered by Mr. Kennan under the auspices of our 
Cardiff Branch in the large Park Hall. We may confi- 
dently speak of it as of an accomplished success, though 
DO account of It could reach us In time to be piinted, as 
weknowlxith the powers of the lecturer and the organizing 
abilities of our Branch Secretary. 



Lecture List. 



the subjects opposite their names, under the auspices 
of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 
Clubs, associatioDs, societies and similar institutions, 
or sympathisers with Russian Freedom, desirous of 
securing the services of any of these ladies or gentle- 
men, sboald communicate with the lecturer direct. 



. 13a, Cromwell-road, S,W. (not on 

Thursday or Frid^r.) Single Lecture ; •' Russia 
and her People." Three Lectures ; " Rusna and 
Siberia" (i) "Geography and Climate;" (a) "Early 
History; " (3) " Late History." " Land system- 
Present Condition — The Mir. the Commune." 
Three Lectures: "Russian Martyrs r" (i) "The 
Peasants;" (2) "Administrative Exiles;" (3) "The 
Stundists." A Course of Nbe Lectures, devoting 
two to the subject of Administrative Exiles. 
W. F. MouLTOH, The Leys School, Cambridge. 

Subject : " Russia To-day and To-morrow." 
G. H. Perris, 115, Fleet-street, E.C. SubjecU; 
" Russia's Place in Modem Europe." " lite 
P^fsonw/ of the Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
" The Episode of the ' Terror.' " " The Coming 
Crash in Russia." 
Miss Ada Radporq, I, South Hill Avenue, Harrow. 
Subjects : " Russian Exiles," and " Russia and the 
Revolutionists." 
George Stahdrihg, 7, Finsbnry-street, E.C. Sub- 
ject : "The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
G. L. Mallet, Hon. Sec. 
Lantern Slides for Free Russia, — To assist 
those who purpose delivering local lectures on the 
subject there have been prepared 30 lantern slides 
of the most striking illustrations in Kennan's 
" Siberia." No charge of any kind is made for the 
use of the slides, but they must be returned carriage 
free and uninjured. With the slides is lent a copy 
of Kenmm's " Siberia," 2 vols., with the descriptive 
passages marked. The Century Company having 
accorded permission to use these slides, they may be 
used without fear of infringement of copyright. 
Apply Thomas Laurie, 28, Paternoster Row, London. 



THE SOCIETY OF 

Fnrthop LlBt 



Hr>. R. Moore, London ... ll 10 
Miss H. Sonthall. Leo- 
minster 6 

Mrs. A.P.Rockwell, London 6 

Per Mrs, Sidgwlck, Oxford ID 

Mr. Standrlng, London ... 10 

Conntesi of Carlisle ... 8 

Wm. Betts, Lewisham ... 6 

Mrs, Rill London 6 

Miss Webb, Dablin ... 10 
Per Miss Ada Kadford, 

Harrow 6 

Madame Perlz, Cambridge 2 



FRIENDS OF 

of SabBorlptlons of 2b. 



Sarah L. Swonwick, Man- 
cheater t 

W. SimpsoD, Stockport ... i 

T. T. Aschkenosi, London i 

Mabel Green, London ... I 

6 lane Duncan, London ... I 

E. G. Dimsdale. York 

(Stundist Fund) 

Mrs. J. H. Clarke, London < 

R. Ford Smith, London ... 
Miss Louisa Bradt^, Sou th- 

ampton 

Miss Alice Blatch, London 



RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
6d. and opwarda. 

8. d. I 8. d. 

Miss C. Webb, Dublin ... 6 

10 MissE. A. Morgan, London 6 

6 HeoTv Simon, Manchester 6 
2 6 R. J. Leeson, Newcastle-on- 

6 Tyne 110 

4 J. Turner, Manchester ... 11 6 

J. Scott Fraser, Liscard, 

1 Cheshire 6 

fi J. Mallinson, Birmingham 10 



A. C. Engert, Brom1^-t>y- 

Bow 

Per Miss Mallet : 

Mr. Milne, Hastings 



1 



THE SLAUGHTER OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SIBERIA. 

New Supplemented Edition <2Bth Thoueond), with Plan of the Houee where the 
Maeeeope took place. 

Pi-loe ao., Poat Fires Bid. 



Apply to His. A. SIOGWICK, 64, WoodBtook Road, Oxford, or to Hias G. 
HALLET, 132, CromwaU Road, Sooth Kemtngton, London, S.W. 

Printed wd Fubliriwd by Wabd ft Foxlow, 113. Church Street, London. NW.— March i«, 1894 



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Free Russia 

TBS OSaAXt OF TEE SlTaUSF 
$ocietif of 3rten6s of 'glusstan pfrec6om. 

RfigUtePMl as a Newspaper for TpansmlBslon Abroad. 



Vol. 6.— No. 4.] 



APBIL 1st, 1804. 



[One Pknnt. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The English Society of Friends of Rnsslan Freedom, founded In November, 18S9, has for its objects to aid, 
to the extent of its powerB, the Russian patriots who are ti^ang to obtain foe their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creea, who cannot witness with indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tzars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Rassian people. Further contributiooB to the funds and 
further work are needed and will be welcome. Membership is acquired by sending to theTreasurer an annual 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Frtt Russia post free. 
All Oontributloni and Bubiorlplbni to be addreued to Dr. R. 8PEN0E WATSON, Bensham Qpove, Qatashead 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
ThoH marked with an *, form the Executive Committee. 
■Edward R. Pease, 
•a. H. Psrrii. 
■J. Allanson Pioton, M.P. 
'Miss Ada Radford. 



William Allan, M.P. 

Rev. Oharls* A. Barry, D.D. 

Rev. Stopford A. Brooke. 

Percy W. Bunting. 
-W. P. Bylei, MP. 

The Oountau of Carlisle- 
Rev. W. Moore Ede. 

J. E. Ellis, H.P. 

Mite lubella 0. Ford. 
•J. F. Qreen. 

L T. Hobhouie. 



R. A. Hudion. 
*MiM Mary Hargrave. 

R. Maynard Leonard. 

Thomas Lough, M.P. 

John Maodonald, 
•W. Maoksnzls. 
*Mrs. Oharlet Mallet. 

8. T. Mander, J.P. 

E. J. 0. Morton, M.P. 

J. Fletoher Moulton, Q.O. 



I. Herbert Rlx. 
•HertMrt Rlx. 
H. Roberts. 
Joshua Rowntrea. 
Wm. Saundsra, L0.0., M.P. 
Rev. Prof. Shuttleworth. 
I. Arthur Sidgwiok. 



■Adolphe Smith. 
Henry 0. Staphena, M.P. 

Profaaaor Stuart, M.P. 
'Herbert M. Thompaon. 
*Wm. Thompaon. 

J. 8. Trotter. 
•T. Rihar Unwm. 
•Mrs. Wilfrid Voynich. 

Mrs, E. Spanoe Watson. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
•Mlai Hetan Webb, M.B. 



Henry J. Wilaon, M.P. 

'Robert Spanoe Wataon, LLD, Hon. TVnuiir«r, Bensham Grove, Gateshead. 

*Miaa Q. L Mallet, Him. Stertlarg, 133. Cromwell Road, South Kenslngtoii. London, S.W. 



Cardiff— 

Hon. StCTtlary, 

H. M, Thohpsou, Esq., M.A., 

Whitley Batch, near Cardiff. 

Edinburgh— 

Hon. Surttary, 

D. W. Wallace, Esq., S.S.C, 

S3, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh. 

Leeds— 

Hon. Surelary, 

Theodore Roth stein, Esq., 

87, Byron Street, Leeds. 



BRANCHES: 

Newcastle-on-Tyne— 

Hon. Secretary, 

Miss Laing, 

33, Hntt Street, Gateshead. 
Oxford— 

Hon. Secretary, 

Mrs. Arthur Sidcwick, 

64, Woodstock Road, 

Oxford. 

Plymouth— 

Hon. Secretary, 

John Adams, Esq., 

14, St. Lawrence Road, 

Plymouth. 



" FREE RUSSIA" la published on tha let of every month by Meaara. Ward A Foxlow, 113, Church Street, N.W. 

PRICE.— England : id.; Mlnlmnm Aonual Subicripiioa, post free, is. ed. Sweden: 10 tire; Annual Subscription, 

post free. 2 kronerg. Franoa, Belgium, Switzerland and Roumania: 30 centimes ; Annual Subscription, 

ab. 40c.; post free, jfr. Holland: loc. : Aimnal Subscription, igld. loc. : poat free, igld. 40c. 

Germany: ajpf.; Annual Subscription, post free 3 marks. 

THE AHEBICAN EDITION is pabllBhed at the Offioss of "Fma Baasia," Ro9m Ma 81, 
Trlbane BiiUdiDg, 10c. ; Annpot SabsoripUon $1, 



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46 



KKKE RUSSIA. 



June 1, 1U94. 



CONTENTS. 

Arrests in Russia. — Lectures. — Alexander HI.'s 
Jiistiee. — A Horrible Tragedy. — The Political 
Claims of the Russian Liberals (continued, by 
F. VolkhovskyJ.— News and Notes of the Month.— 
A Philosophy of Solidarity (by S. Stepniak). — 
The Annual Meeting of the S.F.R.F.—List 
of Subscribers. 

Arrests in Russia. 

The whole English Press reports arrests 
throughout Russia, and rehable private infor- 
mation confirms the fact. What does it mean ? 
— sucli is the question every lover of liberty 
asks liim or herself. To this question the 
Standard correspondent replies : — 

Those who pretend to be well infonned declare ihat 
this is (he death-I>low to the revolution which waa being 
carefully prepared. All the moil respectable, most 
eamest. and moii influeDlial of the old Revolulionary 
Parly are now either arrested or in biding, and it will be 
hard for the rest to attempt anything lor many years, if, 
indeed, the Kevolutionists may not be considered already 
crushed. The celerity and avoidance of publicity, with 
which what was cerl ain I y considered aforn:iida.bleorgani- 
saiion has beea annihilated, prove bow iboronghly the 
police have the matter in hand. The public press, and. 
indeed, the public itself, fears to whisper what is 
happening in lis midst. 

Yes, such is the answer of those who pretend 
lo know and to undersland the position of 
things, but not of those who really do so. 
True the lawless and shameless government of 
the Tzar, which is alwajs at war with its own 
people, has lately become greatly alarmed at 
the evident fact, that people in Russia grow 
more and more alive to their duties as citizens. 
This is the more apprehended, because this 
revival is not confined to a handful of unpractical 
hot-headed, though noble young souls, but com- 
prises various classes of society. " ] have just 
heard of a large landed proprietor, near Luban, 
having been arrested,'' says the Standards cor- 
respondent, and names in a later telegram a 
number of persons occupying a certain position 
among their fellow-cuizens, such as Mr. 
Chermak, Director of the Statistical Bureau in 
St. Petersburg, with his assistant, Alexandroff 
and his wife; Mr. von Struve, of the Finance 
Ministry; Mr. Yegoroff and Mr. Orlofl in the 
Nobility Bank; M. Saklajensky, Prolessor of 
Natural History; Dr. Sutchinsky and a 
fashionable dressmaker, Kernajetskya; in 
Orel, among others, an Inspector of Taxation, 
M. Valter was arrested, and also the chief 
engineer of a railway, M. Korolyoff; in 
Baku even an orthodox priest, M, Sokolovsky, 
w as seized." The aiins and modes of action of 

* Our own correspondent adds to these names some 
oihers, of which we may mention ; a graduate of the 
St. Peiarsburg University. Miklasbevsky, Doctor Zvya- 
guivv, and journalist NikolalW. In Toula and the Crimea 
also arrests Here made. In Moscow the number of people 
seized exceeds 100, mostly from among engineers and 
undergraduates. 



all those people were so peaceful, moderate 
and leasonable, that not only in England, but 
even in Germany, nay in a country like Austria, 
they would be regirded as indisputable and 
beneficial to the community at large. The 
arrested called themselves " Friends of Political 
Lil>erty," says the Standard, and, as the Daily 
Telegraph's correspondent states : — 

Endeavoured to propagate their ideas by means of 
Bpokea and written discourses. One secret printing press 
01 miniature dlinensions has been found. Thi characltr of 
Ihi sodety is ralhtr literary than poliliiai. and it istluwed all 

But that was what the Russian government 
feared most, as such aspirations and methods 
are exactly those (hat are understood and 
favoured by people in general, and will certainly 
be supported by foreign sympathy throughout 
the world. So the police spared no efforts to 
misrepresent the character of the new move- 
ment in Russia, to circulate false reports, and 
the Daily Chronicle's St. Petersburg correspon- 
dent fell into the trap, when telegraphing over 
a fortnight ago, that bombs were prepared to 
be thrown in tha Kazao or Isaac cathedrals, 
though, by the way, the Tzar never visits 
those churches, having a cathedral of his own 
in the Winter Palace. But on the 15th inst. 
he had more reliable information and wired, ■' I 
hear from other sources that the majority of 
the students who have been arrested 
are neither anarchists or nihilists, but revolu- 
tionists, who are anxious to substitute for the 
present regime one more in accordance with 
those existing in other countries on the 
Continent." 

The Tzar'sgovernment understands perfectly 
the nature of the danger that threatens it, and 
is evidently resolved to administer a "death- 
blow " to the aspirations of the people. The 
methods adopted are the usual methods of the 
government : imprisonment, insult, lawless 
arrests of young men and girls, of which further 
particulars will be found in other columns. Side 
by side with this the Russian embassies and 
consulates, both in Europe and America, are 
showing signs of increased activity, trying on 
the one hand to keep under supervision those 
young men and girls who are driven by the 
reaction raging in their own country to seek 
education in foreign lands, and on the other to 
undermine the efforts of the Russian political 
refugees to help their brethren in Russia by 
means of a free press. Lately the news 
reached us that several Russian medical stu- 
dents in Paris, of both sexes, when going to 
Russia for their holidays, were searched on 
the frontier, &c. 

But what, with all its atrocious unscrupulous- 
ness and fiendish cruelty, can the Russian 
government attain in the end? Nothing, that 
can shake the movement at its foundation -that we 
say with the profoundest conviction atid lull 
knowledge of Russian affairs. Homes may im 



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June I, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



47 



ruined, victims killed by inches, wives robbed be gathered even from the gagged Russian 

of their husbands, parents of iheir children, newspapers and reviews. 

brothers of their sisters. But will all these There is only one way in which the Russian 

official crimes really reduce the number of official terrorism can do much harm to tlie 

R^P'^ who feel acutely, that the present posi- Russian liberation movement ; It may force it 

tion of things in Russia is insupportable, and from a peaceful metliod into a violent one. If 

who are convinced that a AaiftM i»r/Ki, political this happens, tlie responsibility for all the 

freedom and representative government must reprisals that mav occur will rest entirely and 

be got by any means or at any price ? Quite exclusively with the Tzar's government. Let 

the contrary. What, after all, can the Tzar that not be forgotten. 

and his government do? They can and will ^ .-_ 

exile a large number of malcontents and put r 

others under police surveillance, without remov- J^eCtUYeS. 

ingtherafrom their homes. That, of course. Just at present thosecretariesofvariousclulwand 

means misery and vexation for those concerned, associations are making up their liata of lectures for 

but polilicaily it means simply transferring the ^^e coming session. We call their attention to the 

element of disaSection from one part of the following lecture list in the hope that they may avail 

empire to another. Already there is hardly a themselves of it The lectures are given gratis mth 

iniun In I7..r»r^c- D - ■ (, i.1, . '"e approval of the Executive Committee. Secre- 

1 ^,LL r P ", R"'"'^ J'»^«'^e there are not ,„ie8 L«ous to secure the service of any of the« 

a number of people on whom the police have ladies or gentlemen should communicate directly 

to keep an eye. That number is increasing with the lecturer. 

daily, and will increase still more, and this Mrs. Mallet, 13a, Cromwell-road, S.W. (not 



makes it impossible for the police to carry 
the supervision effectively. To impede a 
inovement is not to annihilate it, and the 
English correspondents speaking of " how 
thoroughly the police have the matter in 
hand," are too quick in drawing conclusions 
from insufRcient evidence. With few excep- 
tions the correspondents see in such matters 
only what is on the surface. No pohtical 
organization — which in Russia is of necessity 
clandestine, however peaceful — can admit them 
into their confidence. Thus they may know 
the number of persons arrested, and their 
names; but whether those persons are really 
those who are the most dangerous lo the 
government, whether the police committed 
blunders by arresting friends among the 
enemies, add how many still more formidable 
champions of liberty and justice are al woik, 
unnoticed by his Majesty's spies, is unknown 
to them. 

Now, as people who have chosen to openly 
acknowledge ourselves Friends of Russian Free- 
dom, and who have already done something in 
that capacity, we enjoy the privilege of kuowinij 
something of what is behind the scenes. And 
we are happy to announce that notwithstand- 
ing all the official terrofism displayed lately in 
Russia, independent Russian hterature is still 
finding its way into the empire of the Tzars, 
that the further development of its underground 
work in Russia is in full swing, notwith- 
standing spies and imimidators, that the 
demand for an altogether independent clades- 
tine periodical is so great, that, very likely, 
within the limits of a year it wiU be created, 
and finally that that awakening of Russian 
society to their civic duties, which finds its 
outlet in open, "legal" endeavour to spread 



Thursday or Fridy-,) Single Lecture : '* Russia 
and her People." Three Lectures : ■' Russia and 
Siberia" (i) "Geographv and Climate;" (i) " Early 
History; " (3) " Late History." " Land system — 
Present Condition — The Mir, the Commune." 
Three Lectures: "Russian Martyrs;" (0 "The 
Peasants;" (2) "Administrative Exiles;" (3) "The 
Slundisls." A Course of Nine Lectures, devoting 
tvo to the subject of Administrative Exiles. 

W. F. MouLTON, The Leys School, Cambridge. 
Subject : " Russia To-day and To-morrow." 

G. H. Ferris, 115, Fleet-street, E.G. Subjects: 
" Russia's Place in Modern Europe." " The 
Ptrsonn^l of the Russian Revolutionary Movement." 

'* The Episode of the ' Terror. The Coming 

Crash in Russia." 

Miss Ada Radford, i, South Hill Avenue. Harrow. 
Subjects : " Russian Exiles," and " Russia and the 
Revolutionists." 

George Stahdrinc, 7, Finsbury- street, E.C. Sub- 
iect: "The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 

Mr. Thomas Laurie, 28, Paternoster Row, London, 
offers to anyone desirous lo make use of them for 
lecturing, 30 lantern slides from the most striking 
illustrations in Kennan's " Siberia," together with a 
copy of the book in whicn the corresponding des- 
criptive passages are marked. No charge of any 
kind is made for the use of the slides, but they must 
be returned carriage paid and uninjured. 

G. L. Mallet, Hon. Sec. 



Alexander III.'s yustice. 



The Russian Senate was founded by Peter I. 
as a stronghold of legality. In one of the ukases 
addressed to that body, that monarch wrote : 
" It is useless to make laws if they are not to 
be observed." But as legality and unlimited 
power are mutually exclusive, the senate never 
was altogether what it ought to have been, and 
still less is it so in our times. This applies 
mainly to its first department, whose province 
education, and (o increase the welfare of the was to judge all state officials of a certain rank, 
peasants, is still going on unabated ; this may against whom charges had been brought. Here 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1894. 



is a striking instance which occurred a little 
more than a month ago. On the iSth of 
April last the first department of the Russian 
senate pronounced its judgment in the case 
P. V. Nekludov, governor of the Orel province. 
He was charged with having unlawfully 
flogged a number of peasants, who had declined 
to comply with the orders of the police, 
Several women and old men died from the 
effects of the cruelties imposed upon them. 
The first departnent found that the said doings 
of Nekludov contained all the essential features 
of a crime, and that according to law he ou^ht 
to be arraigned before a court, but takmg 
into consideration that the arraignment would 
involve a preliminary enquiry, during which 
the peasantry of the province of which Nekludov 
was governor would be questioned in the 
capacity of witnesses, " which is not desirable," 
and that finally the Ministry of Internal Affairs 
had taken no steps against Nekludov as an 
indicted person, the senate resolved to repri- 
mand the governor Nekludov. As, however, 
this resolution is not in strict conformity with 
the law, therefore before its enactment the 
sanction of his Imperial Majesty is to be 
obtained through the Minister of Justice. 

This is what is called justice and legality in 
ofBcial Russia. We know, however, that aliove 
all institutions and officials there is an omnipo- 
tent Tzar, whose omnipotence is justified, if 
ever, when it enables him to redress any wrong 
and error committed by his servants. So may 
we not be sure that after having had the whole 
shameful business reported to nim, Alexander 
III. stopped it and showed that there was 
justice in Russia ? 

The fact however is that to the report of 
the Ministers of Justice his Imperial Majesty 
most graciously answered : " I am very glad." 
We leave our readers to decide what it was 
he was glad about. We can't. 



did. Tregoubov immediately suspected the 
paymaster of the regiment to be the instigator 
of the complaints, and planned a revenge. He 
asked the paymaster to lend him £yx>, knowing 
very well that the man had no money of ms 
own, but, trusting his commander's word, would 
lend him government money. But as soon as 
he got it he arranged an inspection of the funds, 
and the lack of the ^300 was discovered. The 
paymaster was indicted, but the next day he 
was found dead. He had shot himself, leaving 
a letter addressed to his comrades, in which he 
explained thewhole mean intrigue of Tregoubov. 
Under the impression of the horrible news the 
officers gathered in a body and discussed the 
question. They came to the conclusion that 
there was no justice for them by legal means, 
and passed a resolution unprecedented in the 
annals of the Russian army— a resolution to kill 
the commander of their regiment. They drew 
lots, and the lot fell to the young adjutant of 
the regiment, who went to find Tregoubov and 
shot him on the spot. 

Dragomirov was summoned to St. Peters- 
burg to explain, and the whole tragedy created 
the greater sensation as the Tzar was expected 
to come to Kiev. It is expected that the whole 
regiment will be disbanded. 



A Horrible Tragedy. 

(A Correspondence from Kiev.) 
Thecommanderofoneofthe regi men ts quart ered 
in Kiev, Tregoubov by name, was distinguished 
for his roughness and insolence in his relations 
with the officers of his regiment, not to speak 
of the soldiers. This led to many protests on 
the pait of the officers, addressed to Tregoubov 
by the officers in a body. This, however, iead 
to nothing, and the officers then sent in a col- 
lective complaint to the commander of the local 
troops. General Dragomirov, asking him either 
to transfer them, or Tregou Cov, to some other 
place, as it had become impossible for them to 
serve with him. According to Russian law, the 
official against whom a complaint is made is 
asked to give his explanations to the authori- 
ties, for which purpose the complaint itself is 
communicated to bim, and this Dragomirov 



The Political Claims of the 
Russian Liberals* 

It will be easily understood that the 
injustice, arbitrariness and insincerity with 
which Alexander II. and his government 
treated the Russian Liberals, strengthened 
the position of the revolutionists. The latter 
proclaimed the government hopeless, a govern- 
ment that could not be trusted ; and the 
manner in which the peaceful and loyal class 
of society was treated, that very class to which 
it applied itself in difficulty, justified the 
uncompromising attitude of the revolutionaiy 
party in the eyes of many, who before thought 
differently. Among other reasons, we find 
here the explanation of the enormous activity 
the revolutionary party developed, notwith- 
standing the comparatively small number of its 
acknowledged adherents; an activity which 
culminated in the death of Alexander II. 

That tragedy raised again a burning 
question for the peaceful citizens of Russia 
who cared for the welfare of the community. 
They wanted to put an end to the deplorable 
internal struggle, they wanted to remain loyal 
to the Tzar and to do their duty as citizens ; 
but they felt that neither was possible so long 
as the government clung obstinately to bureau- 
cratism, and autocracy and suppressed aspira- 



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June I, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



lions towards liberty and self-government. At 
the same time they had no earnest trust of the 
government's good faith or grasp of the political 
situation. That is evident from speeches that 
were delivered in some of the <«nu/iw-assemb]ies, 
convened soon after the 13th of March, 1881. 

In the Novgorod lemstvo one of its members, 
N. N. Nechayev, delivered a speech in which, 
among other things, he said : " Hardly can we 
doubt, that it is our duty to speak out on this 
occasion. True, the literal meaning of the' nmiJiw 
statutes' does not grant ,us that right. But it 
is impossible to be guided only by the literal 
meaning of the law at a moment of such 
historical importance as the present ; we 
have to elevate ourselves and to see what is the 
spirit of the law. According to the ' statutes ' 
we are empowered to deal only with toeal 
interests. But it is impossible to separate the 
welfare of the Tzar from any local interests !' 
Is not bis welfare the most urgent interest of 
any locality and any person ? The historical 
moment we are living through, is a horrible 
one! Look around you, account to yourself 
for what is going on, and you will find it im- 
possible to be silent. 

" We have before our eyes a long series of 
endeavours to fight the evil purely by means of 
police measures, without any co operation with 
society. The utter uselessness of such a strug- 
gle and the impossibility of obtaining any real 
success on that path is now-a-days evident to 
everyone. There is no going further on that 
path, it is also impossible to listen to appeals 
to reaction, as that would mean renouncing the 
great principles which were bequeathed to us 
By the late monarch. So only one path 
remains open : society must be called upon to 
take part in the struggle with the evil, then 
there can be 00 doubt about the issue." 

The Samara zetnstvo was still more explicit 
and Ear less hopeful. 

On the iSth of March, 1881, its president t 
proposed to present Alexander III. with an 
address, in which the feelings of grief at the 
sad end of the late Tzar, as well as congratu- 
lations on his own accession to the Throne werf; 
expressed. But the deputy, Zhdanov, op- 
posed the motion. " During the last few years," 
he said, " we have presented five similar 
addresses; none of them led to anything, nor 
did they really express anything, because all that 
was in fact weighing en our souls was unrtvealed and 
still remains so." He was supported by two 
other speakers. The deputy N&oumov said: 
" We do not know what awaits us. J It is 
better, therefore, to keep silence." The deputy 

t The presidenls of ibe zamtvo (uasemblies are, ac- 
cordinc to law, themaishals of the local ootnlity, which 
U often not in accordance with the withes of the 
as3eml>lies. 

} Thai Is, what the allitnde of the centnl govern- 
ment towards the avatiiB will be. — Ed. 



Noudatov said he now considered it a question 
whether he was right tn signing the preceding 
addresses. " Did we ever mention in them the 
over- burdening of the peasantry with taxe;:, 
the crushing of labour by capital, the lack of 
safeguards to personal liberty ? No ; we never 
did I Well, then, it is belter not to say any- 
thing at all — to be silent. " 

[The motion of the president was declined 
almost unanimously.] 

We are unable to mention here alt the 
umstvos that at that time expressed themselves 
in favour of representative government and 
political' liberty, as the publication of the 
accounts of the sessions were dependent upon 
the permission of the governor of the province. 
We know, h-)wever, that the«»«it«)J of Ryazan, 
Taurida and Kazan, also the douma of Kazan 
and the nobility of Simara were among them. 

F. V0LKHOVS«Y. 

(To be concluded.) 



News & Notes of the Month. 

The author of the Krozhe butchery, the 
governor of the Kovno province, Kliogenberg, 
was, as will be remembered, summoned to St. 
Petersbirg to explain. It seems that his 
explanations proved satisfactory to the Tzar, 
as he was invited, among others, to a court 
ball at the last carnival, at which the Tzar 
addressed a few words to him. The latter is 
generally regarded as a special sign of favour. 

Our readers know already how much the 
Russian judiciary has been mutilated, since it 
was remodelled to some extent on rational 

Erinciples, in 1864. The new minister of justice 
I. V. Mouraviov madea rather sensational start ; 
he instituted, with the sanction of the Tzar, a 
committee to systematize those innovations 
which had been introduced into the judiciary 
system, at the same time to suggest measures 
for its improvement, by giving it a certain 
harmony "which would equally secure the 
interests of order in the country, and the law- 
ful rights of individuals." We called this a 
sensational start, because Russian society 
would like to understand this step, as one taken 
with the aim of bringing back the Russian 
judiciary, at least to its original improved state, 
and to introduce this improved state into the 
whole of Russia. Whether it will be so is, 
however, a question. On the one hand the 
minister's invitations to participate in the work 
of the committee, addressed to several high 
officials, well known adherents of the rational 
principles of 1864, and to members of the bar 
and universities, would seem to point to a 
liberal direction being given to affairs, but on 
the other hand, in an opening speech, the 
minister explained at some length, that the 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1894. 



questions of the jury and of publicity were not 
open for discussion by the committee, thuij 
giving countenance to the mutilation of those 
principles already perpetrated. 

A very big book was recently published by 
the Russian government on the occasion of the 
World's Columbian Exposition, for the glorifi- 
cation of its economic policy. It is called 
" The Industries of Russia : Manufactures and 
Trade." Among other things it contains a 
picture of the position of the Russian factory- 
worker, which, though unable to conceal alto- 
gether its wretchedness, makes every effort 
to make it look bright. Not a little emphasis is 
put into the description of the protection 
exercised by the factory-inspectors, officials 
created under the ministry of N. Bunge, We 
are glad to be able to contrast with it a state- 
ment of the Novot Vremya : a paper which, cer- 
tainly, cannot be suspected of lack of good will 
to support the government in everything. In its 
issue of April 19th, it states that as soon as the 
inspection of factories was instituted, the fac- 
tory-owners raised a clamour against the 
inspectors " for their ' meddling ' with what 
the factory owners regarded as their ' private 
business,' such as the feeding of the working men 
on putriiied victuals, lodging them in filthy 
dens, employing them in unhealthy premises, 
where the people bad to work for 14 or 15 con- 
secutive hours. However evident the real reason 
of complaints made by the factory owners 
against the inspectors was, yet it must be 
confessed with regret, that the effect aimed at 
was produced. Tkt impictum of factories, though 
not abolished in a formal way, was practkatly 
put in an impossibU position. On the one side it was 
as if the inspectors were asked to maintain justice 
and law in the mutual relations between the 
factory-owners and the hands (for which pur- 
pose they were appointed) ; on the other 
hand they were required not to embarrass the 
employers, not to interfere with their relations 
to the workers without dire need for fear of 
impressing on the minds of the uioriing people 
perverted ideas. It goes without saying, that 
being put under such conditions, the inspection of 
factorus was gradually transformed into mere red- 
tapism with only formal duties," 

The 20th of February was the 7^tb anni- 
versary of the St. Petersburg University. The 
Russian papers reported in due time such little 
commemoration of the event as had taken place 
in the " higher " and more or less official circle. 
But it never mentioned a word (because it 
couldn't) of an informal but certainly more 
hearty banquet on the occasion, which had a 
sad ending. It transpired only lately. A 
number of undergraduates asked the Prefect of 
St. Petersburg, General von Val, for permission 
to have a tea party to cotnmemorate the anni- 



versary of their alma mater. This was not per- 
mitted, but a dinner for 100 or 200 persons was 
allowed to be given (the clever general knew 
that the advanced young Russians are, as a 
rule, pretty poor). The admission to dinner 
was by ticket, and its promoters took the 
^eatest care that only people with good estab- 
lished reputations should be admitted. Some 
professors of the university and litterateurs were 
also invited. But the police also took some 
care to outwit the students, for the purpose of 
having their own people to the banquet room. 
So they replaced all the waiters of the restaurant 
where the party took place with spies, and had 
that very night a "nice" report of the pro- 
ceedings — whether true or embellisned did 
not matter. The very next morning a charge 
was brought against the initiators and some of 
the participants of the banquet. It included 
three points : (i) The banquet was not a regular 
dinner, and the number of participants exceeded 
the number allowed, as there were about 600 
persons present ; (2) a professor of the 
university delivered a speech in which he urged 
the undergraduates to pay atteotiou to the 
needs of the people, and especially of the 
peasantry, and to try to bring light into their 
midst ; {3) an undergraduate, TalaUev, invited 
those present to make a subscription on behalf 
of the starving strikers and their families at the 
factory of a Voronin. 

An undergraduate, Bar told by name, was at 
once exiled to Novgorod by administrative 
order for two years, Talalagv was imprisoned, 
and as the police thought they had not got from 
him all the information about his doings they 
wanted, they imprisoned his brother, a boy of 
thirteen. Owing to his parents' entreaties, the 
child is now liberated, but his elder brother is 
still kept in prison. 

That is the Russian official way of com- 
memorating events connected with popular 
progress and national enlightenment. 

The Standard correspondent informs us that 
on the occasion of the late arrests in St. Peters- 
burg, a lady- dress maker and several of her 
apprentices were stripped naked. No doubt the 
pretext was that they were to be searched. 
Private intelligence confirms the fact. 

On March 30th, 1892, an undergraduate of 
the Moscow University of the mathematical 
faculty, Paul Korotkevich, was arrested on the 
charge of taking part in political propaganda, 
and kept in solitary confinement until he died, 
on the 7th February, 1893, from consumption, 
without ever having been brought to trial. 
That is what is called by the Russian govern- 
ment preliminary imprisonment. 

In May, 1893, another young man expiated 
by death the unpardonable guilt of being a 



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June I, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



patriot. A law-studeDl of the Moscow Uni- 
versity, Nicolas Karatygin, was arrested in May, 
1890, at night, when travelling in a train of the 
Moscow Yaroslav railway, and after a year's 
preliminary detention, was imprisoned without 
trial in the so-called Cross Prisoi for two years. 
His term had nearly expired when he fell ill. 
Hin relatives implored the officials to liberate 
him, in order that he might be put under the 
best medical care. This, however, was denied, 
and the young martyr died on the eve of the 
expiration of his trial. This case (as alas, so 
many others) may be fairly regarded as a death 
sentence carried out by administrative order. 

The English reader will be interested to learn that 
according to Russian law, whoever wants to establish 
a Free Library mual apply for a special permit from 
the governor of the province ; who has also to sanc- 
tion the rules of the institution, which he alters in any 
way he tikea. lo case such a library is to be estab- 
lished in a building coonected with a school, the 
Ministry of National Education must also be asked 
for a permit. IE granted, the permission involves 
these two rules, (i) That no book can be placed on 
the shelves without a special permit for it. (2) That 
in no case readers may be admitted to read within 
the precincts of the library, and that books may be 
given out only on speci^ed da^s and at certain 
hours, which do not clash with lesson hours. 
According to the paragraphs 175 and 158 of the 
statutes concerning censorsoip, no person can start a 
library, book store, reading room, printing ofBce, 
or any institution for the reproduction of letters or 
images, without a special permit : in St. Petersburgh 
from the Prefect, in Moscow from the Governor- 
General, and in all other places from the respective 
governors of the provinces. 

But even under such Draconian law the best Rus- 
sians at the present time are trying to do something 
to increase tne means of enlightenment throughout 
Russia. A private society for the promotion of 
elementary knowledge in St. Petersburg has recently 
issued a pamphlet iu which the via dolorosa of any- 
one who would like to estabUsh a Free Library, is 
made as easy as il can be under the circumstances, 
by minute explanations of how and to whom to 
' r, and what steps to take to safely pass all the 



ISfc 



II do a great deal of good. 

The epilogue of the great demonstration which 
took place in Warsaw on April 17th bos began. 
All the arrested are now divided- into four classes. 
Those regarded as organisers of the demonstration 
(Zielinski, Michalowski, Kozubowaki and a fourth 
whose name is unknown to the public, all four being 
medical students), will be sent administratively into 
exile for live years, to a small town in the Akmolinsk 
province in central Asia. The second class includes 
students who h'd already taken part in manifesta- 
tions on other occasions. Tbese are expelled from 
the university, with the deprivation of the right of 
eniering any other for live years, and to exile for the 
same perioil into European Russia. The third and 
fourtli sectious include townspeople, of whom those 
wlio were already entered on the lists of the secret 
police, are to be punished more heavily than those 



who were not suspected of that crime yet did parti 
cipale in the demonstration. It is not yet known 
what exactly awaits them. 

• * • 
We are Informed from Shangtiaitbat there aieoaly two 
booksellers' shops ihere, Kelly and Walsh. Umited, and 
Brewer: bolboC these have Iwen approached in past yean 
by people anxious to diitribuie mdependeol literatnte in 
Russian, and both havitig displayed Ihe books entruited 
to them oa their counters were very courteously requested 
by Russian oiScials to withdraw them, uikich they did. 
We are rather surprised at the readiness of people, who 
seem to be of English slock and under the protection of 
the British Flag, to comply with such a request, however 
courteously made. 

Id the Autumn a lecture or lectures will be Riven in 
Worcester on Rnsslan Literature, by Mrs. (Mildred) 
Berkeley. 

A charming anecdote Is circulating in 5t, Petersburg, 
It is said that two gentlemen were psssing a clever police- 
man stationed at a comer of the Aoichkov Palace (the 
present Tzar'sresidenceinSLPetersburg), who was of course 
instructed to take notice of anything concerning the Txar. 
Continuing their conversation, one of the gentlemen said, 
" I assure jou it is true, you know yourself he Is sta[dd 
and a coward." " If you please gentlemen," said the police- 
man, ■' come with me to the police-station." " What do 
you mean?" they said, in surprise, " Why should we go to 
the police-station ? " " Why " retorted the policeman, 
" We all linow very well who it is who is stupid and a 
coward, you have to account (or it. come along if yon 
please.- 



A Philosophy of Solidaiity. 



Some time a^o we spoke in the pages of Freb 
Russia of the arrival in this country of Mr.V. V. Bervy, 
widely known in Russia as the author of several 
books on social and philosophic subjects, which 
bad a deep Influence upon his contemporaries. 
Forty years of exile was the price be hod to pay for 
his noble efforts, and now, at the mature age of 65, 
when his enemies seemed to have grown tired 
of molesting him, he has abandoned his native 
land, his family, a good situation, and voluntarily 
expatriated himself, in order to join once again 
in the hard struggle for Russian liberty and a better 
future. Mr, Bervy's recent contribution to the 
opposition literature is a book on philosophy and 
ethics, which ought to serve as a basis for the prac- 
tical conclusions of our democrats and sociaUsts. 
The ardent lover of fiwidom is always discemable 
through the dialectical subtleties of the philosopher. 

The broad and oririoal Idea which Mr. Bervy puts 
at the foundation of his philosophical doctrine is 
that of the intellectual kinship of the whole universe. 
According to him, the whole world, the inorganic as 
well as the organic one, possesses in different degrees 
the elements of thought which men have proudly 
attributed to their own species only. Thought is the 
inspiring principle and propelling force determining 
the progress of the organic world as much as that of 
human societies. By a subtle reasoning process Mr. 
Bervy intends to prove that progress in nature is 
the simple manifestation of logic. We will not tollow 
him in this domain, in order to dwell more fully 
upon the application of his doctrine to sociology. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1894. 



which seems to ns the most brilliaat and importBut 
part of his work. Theauthor's social philosophy is but 
the broadeoingofhiBphilosophyof the inorganic world. 
Thus the principle ot solidarity, which is the cement 
holdioR human societies together, is manifested, 
according to him, in the lower order of creation — in 
plants, for example, by the tendency of the cells to 
form organic wholes. Life is the growth of solidarity, 
death, its decay ; Ihe aim of all organic conscious- 
ness, resistance to the decay of the solidarity of its 
Earls. Similarly men, who are cells of the body social, 
avejanaturaltendencyto form organised solid bodies, 
called tribes or stales, according to the size and 
maturity of the social organism. Speech plays in 
Ihe body social the part of nerves in organic bodies, 
transmitting sensatioDS and allowing them to be 
evolved into thoughts and stimulants for action. It 
is only through speech thai an organically solid 
human society can be formed aad its progress 
secured. This progress, according to our author, is 
summed up in three words — development of soli- 
darity. In the origin of human societies this 
solidarity was obtained at the expense of freedom. 
It was based upon Ihe development in the masses of 
the insiiact of obedience, and upon the subjugation 
of the weak to the strong. But side by side with 
this form of solidarity based upon exploitation, 
hinnanily evolved the family, in which solidarity is 
based upon an opposite prmciple — the work of the 
strong for Ihe weak, and Ihe easy and voluntary 
sacrifice of egotistic inlerests for the good of Ihe 
whole. The struggle between these two principles 
is the corner-sloneofthe evolution of human societies. 
The author shows how it determined, and was 
hound to determine, first the transformation ot Ihe 
primitive despotic political organisations into self- 
governing free political organisations. Then he 
shows how the moral growth of humanity and the 
I letter conception of men's individual happiness is 
bound to determine a further step in the evolution of 
solidarity, and lead to a higher form of social 
organisation. When individuals can no longer 
separate their own happiness from that of their 
neighbours, no part or section or class of societv 
can remain in conditions unsuitable for Ihe full 
and harmonious development of its members, just as 
a living body cannot feel healthy unless alt its 
molecules and parts are performing their functions 
naturally and unrestrainedly. 

The propagandaoftheideaof brotherhood and soli- 
darity IS just the moral principle which is of the 
greatest importance for the Russian youth ; especially 
at the present day, when the whole enormous 
maohineiy of the Tiar'B government is working for 
bis demoralisation. This makes the book a most 
welcome one. S. Stepnuk. 



The Annual Meeting. 

The Annual Meeting of the English Friends 
of Russian Freedom, was held on May 3rd, at 
the Ideal Club, 185, Tottenham-court- road, at 
5.30 p.m. Dr. Spence Watson presided, and 
there were present : Mrs. Spence Watson, 
Mrs. Arthur Sidgwick, Mrs. P. W. Bunting, 
Mrs. W. Voynich, Miss Armstrong, Miss G. 
L. Mallet, Miss M. Hargrave, Mr. Allanson 
Picton, M.P., Mr. Fisher Unwrin, Mr. J. F. 
Green, Mr. H. M. Thompson, Mr. E. Pease, 
Mr. Stepniak, and others. The report of the 
Executive Committee was read and adopted. 
Speeches were delivered by Dr. Watson, Mr. 
Allanson Picton, M.P., and Mr. Slepniak. 

In a speech of some length, Dr. Watson 
pointed out that this meeting was one of 
particular interest on account of the attacks 
that had lately been made on the Society, 
both in the English and Russian press. The 
Committee of the English Friends of Russian 
Freedom was too well known for it to be 
necessary to refer to the accusation brought 
against it of participating in dynamite plots. 
Such attacks were a cause rather for congratu- 
lation than condolence, they showed that the 
work of the Society was having its effect, and 
that the Society was making itself feared by 
the enemies of freedom in Russia. 

Mr. Allanson Picton spoke about the 
special work entrusted to the sub - committee 
for the help of political exiles, of which he is 
chairman, and supporting. Dr. Watson said that 
the accusations lately brought against such a 
body as the Committee of tne English Friends 
pf Russian Freedom would be simply smiled at. 

Mr. Stepniak thanking Dr. Watson for bis 
speech bore witness to the fact that the English 
Friends of Russian Freedom had become a 
household word in Russia, that the news of 
their efforts to arouse English public opinion 
was carrying encouragement into the hearts of 
the Russian lovers of freedom. 

[For lack of space, the annual report of 
the Executive Committee, together with the 
treasurer's reports, is held over until next 
month.] 



THE SOCIBTr OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Farthar List of Sobsoriptlons of 88 6d. and upwards. 



From Miss Mallei's Feb. 



Hrs.Metc3lf.CrouchEnd 1 

Miss Serpen, Plvmoulh & 1 
Rev, Dr. Fleicher Mnullon. 

Cambridge 10 

Mrs. Morgan Browne, 

tendon ... 6 

MissS. Franks. VanAja ... 1 I 



Per F, Volkhovsky : 

Mrs.Massiogberd.LoodoD 
A. B. WatsoQ, Tecsworth .. 
Ur. and Mrs. Clement 

Ternplelon. Leeds ... I 
Mr. and Mrs. Theodore B. 

Ellis, Leicester 1 

"taC.E. Nowers, Anerley 



L. T. Hobhouse, Oxford ... < 
Miss M Ellis, I,eicestcr ... t 
Miss G. R. Armstrong 

Hampstead ' 

Fanny M. Minns, Isle of 

Wigbc ... 

Per Herbert M. Tbompson : 
G. Ernest SuHt, CardiS 
E. U. Moxey, Cardiff ... 1 
Miss C, Impey. Street ... < 



Primed and Published by iVarp A Foxlow, 113, Church Street, London, N W.— Jui 



18JM. 



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Free Russia 

THZ OBQAir OF THI ZSQtUSS 
$ocietv of grtcnfts of 'glussian §free6om. 

Registered ae a Newspaper for TratiemlBelon Abroad. 



JULY 1st, 1894. 



THE SCXJIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The English Society of FHends of Russiui Freedom, founded in November, i88g, hu for its objects to aid, 
to the extent of ita powers, the Russian patriots who are trying to obtain few their coantry that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for geoeratlons. 

The Society aopeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 

A Cofislitulion fo* Russia (by F. Volkkoviky).— 
Nevis and Niites of the Month. — A Good Political 
Lesson (by H. M. Thompson).— Further Mutilation 
of the " Mi*." —Letter to the Editor (by Jaahiff 
Prelooier /.—Meetings. —List of Subscribers. 



Frfends of Russran Freedom 1 It Is a critical 
moment for- the question of llbeKy In Ruaalal 
Public opinion must be stirred to watchfulnesB 
and sympathy with the refbrmar-a. Maka every 
afTopt to inocease the funds and the atafT of 
wofkera for the good cause. 

Fop the Committee and Branohea of the Society 
of Friends of Russian Fpeedom, see front page. 

A Constitution for Russia. 

We have received a document of great 
importance. It is no less a thing than the 
project of a constitution for Russia, of which 
many copies are now circulating in that country, 
and, presumably, will unite in the pursuit of one 
object many patriots and aspirants towards 
liberty. It is the production of a mature 
mind, of a man of erudition and of a practical 
politician, it may be of several. The author or 
authors had evidently in view, not only the 
creution of a governmental machine that would 
work well, but also one whicli, leaving in 
existence but making more independent all 
the present state institutions — the Council of 
Ministers, the State Council and the Senate — 
might have on its side their present persontul. 
As the introduction to the constitution says, 
" it does not deny, but, on the contrary, is 
imbibed with those leading ideas concerning the 
Tzar and the People, which are dominant among 
the masses ; at the same time it is thoroughly 
democratic, giving ample scope and fair 
play to every heroic endeavour of the individual 
m Russia, the working force of progress, rather 
than the associations and corporations alien to 
Russian life; this is not all, the individual 
is protected against any possible arbitrary 
aggression on the part of the representative 
institutions themselves." The basis on which 
the whole edifice of the unalienable rights of the 
citizens is built up is the law courts, AH the 
judges from the justices of the peace up to the 
senators, are not only not removable, but cannot 
be promoted without their own consent. 
The appointment of judges is in the hands oi 
the courts themselves, except that of the 
senators who are appointed by the Tzar, who 
has to choose each time from three candi- 
dates recommended to him by the Senate. 
The control of the elections is m the hands of 
the district courts. The Senate is the supreme 
court of cassation and sometimes a court of 
appeal, it also controls the legality of the 



proceedings* both ol the elactive bodies ftnd 
the government ; it finds the indictments 
against Members of the Naticmal Congress 
collects the statistics of the population for the 
purposes nf election. The promulgation of laws 
IS entirely in its hands. The .Attorney -General 
and the Comptroller- General are dependent 
upon the Senate. 

At the head of the state is a hereditary 
monarch who rules through a ministry, respon- 
sible before the Chamber of Deputies which 
may find an indictment against them. He 
appoints the Prime Minister and his colleagues 
according to the Utter's recommendation. He 
nominates the members of the State Council. 
He is the head of the army and navy. He may 
veto any decision of the Chamber of Deputies, 
but the budget passed by the Chamber with 
whatever alterations can he vetoed only as a 
whole, not in parts. 

TJie permanent representative bodies are of 
two kinds : provincial Seyms,* and the imperial 
Chamber of Deputies. Each deputy to the 
first is to be elected for 75,000 inhabitants, 
while to the Chamber one deputy represents 
300,000 inhabitants. The functions of the 
Seyms and the Chamber are analogous in their 
main lines to the English House of Commons, 
but the provincial bodies deal only with affairs 
concerning their own provinces. The govern- 
ment is to be represented in the Seyms by 
delegates from the Ministry. The Imperial 
Budget is of course framed by the Ministry but 
it cannot be carried out without the sanction of 
the Chamber, which has power to reduce the 
expenditure but may not increase it. The 
Ministry is obliged to present the budget at a 
fixed time, in order to allow ample time for 
discussion. The bills may be introduced by the 
government, by any member of the Chamber, 
and even by outsiders. In cases of disagreement 
between the higher governmental institutions 
or between the Chamber of Deputies and the 
Monarch, a new institution is called into life, 
and tills is the original feature of the con- 
stitution. It is QiWed Zemsky Sobor, which may 
be interpreted as National Congress. It is 
simply a plebiscite organised into a national 
body. It IS to be summoned by a manifesto of 
the Tzar and only for the purpose of answering 
" yes " or " no " to certain questions, questions 
which are to be stated in the manifesto itself, 
together with a full written statement of the 
decision arrived at, from each of the disputing 
parties. No law sanctioned by the Emperor 
can be proclaimed except by the Senate, which, 
if it finds t)ie law unconstitutional, submits the 
question to the Emperor who either annuls his 
sanction or summons the Zemshy Sobor. No law 

* The provinces Ihftl are to be foimed for tbii purpoae 
must consist of several praseni provinces i Poland, for 
example, is to have one Legislative Assembly {Stym). 



C4AUI^iV, IB to have VUO «4K. 

Finland preserves its aatonomy 



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November i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



91 



which puts on the citizens any new duties or 
taxes, or restrictions of right, or punishments, 
or which is retrospective in its action, can be 
carried into efiect, except with the consent of 
the Zfmsky Sobor. 

The candidates for the Zemsky Sobor are bound 
to make a written public statement of how 
they intend to vote at the ensuing session, 
and if the elected deputies do not keep their 
promise their vote is annulled, the votes being 
compared with the previous pledges by the 
Senate. 

The suffrage is direct and universal. One 
man one vote, the only limitation being age, 
which must be 25 to give the right of electing 
to any of the representative bodies. Habeas 
corpus, freedom of speech, of the press, of 
conscience, of occupation or mode of life, of 
changing the place of residence or nationality 
are to be introduced. 

There are two serious and signi&cant inno- 
vations for Russia : the first is that any citizen 
may prosecute an official for an offence com- 
mitted while on duty, and the other, that no 
official is allowed to plead " not guilty" because 
ordered to do so by a superior officer. I f to all 
this we add that the utmost care is taken to 
safeguard the independence, both of the citizen 
and of the representative bodies, it will be seen 
that the scheme, though not free from some 
weak points, has been seriously and carefully 
thought out. As an instance of a weakness 
we may mention the Council of State, which 
has really nothing to do but to put into shape 
those laws which have been decided on in 
principle by the National Congress, a function 
which could be as easily performed either by 
the Ministry or by a committee created by one 
of the representative bodies. Since, however, 
the authors of the project had the idea of 
maintaining all the existing higher state insti- 
tutions, this was inevitable. All who remember 
the earlier attempts to create a representative 
government for Russia will notice that the 
projected constitution recalls, by the i^ea of 
the Znufy Sobor, to a certain extent, the 
schemes of Kosheiev and other Slavophils. But 
their v^ue, sentimental and practically mean- 
ingless idea of the " direct connection between 
the Tzar and the People " receives in the new 
prefect a real and thoroughly democratic mean> 
ing, and thus ensures the sympathies of very 
different sections of Russian society. 

The project is preceded by a short note on 
the present political situation in Russia, and 
its weighty language, together with what we 
know of that situation from different sources, 
leads us to believe that it puts the present state 
of things in Russia m the true light. Togtveour 
readers an idea of it, we cannot do better than 
quote the following: — " Two questions are now 
before the Russian people : (i) Is a conslitu- 
' " " ? (3) Is a constitution 



tioD titcetstry for Russia ? ( 



possible in Russia ? The first of these questions 
is a question only in form ; in fact, it has 
been already solved in the mind of the Tzar, 
whose daily experience reminds him of the 
necessity of a constitutional government for 
the regular course of state administration. It 
is solved in the minds of an overwhelming 
majority of statesmen in power, and only the 
inveterate custom of bureaucratic insincerity 
seals their'lips. It is solved in the minds of 
Russian society and all its representatives, the 
press, the umstvo, and town deputies with only 
msignificant exceptions. It is solved even in 
the minds of the uneducated classes, of the 
masses, because the discontent with the existing 
arbitrary rule, which pays no attention to law, 
is universal, and the thirst for freedom and 
justice is growing. And, finally, it is no longer a 
question for the revolutionists, who in times 
past denied the importance of constitutional 
government to the welfare of the people. 

True, different classes of our society represent 
that constitution to themselves differently, but 
this touches already on the second question — 
that of the possibility of a constitution for 
Russia, because at a particular time in a 
country only one constitution is possible, 
namely, that which answers to its social and 
and political peculiarities. Very, very soon a 
constitution for Russia will be universally dis- 
cussed, because everyone ts already thinking of 
it. The time is coming when the stones will 
cry out. Prince Meshcherskyt will propose a 
constitution of his own make, Witte and 
Yermolov t of theirs, Pobedonostzev of his. 
But in our country neither a landlord, nor a 
bourgeois, nor a clerical constitution is possible, 
because the middle ages have not bequeathed 
us those classes of the population, which in 
Western Europe maintain a landlord or a 
clerical constitution, while capitalism has not 
yet had time to place the people under the 
yoke of the bourgeoisie. The educated class 
(intelligentzia), as a devoted champion of the 
people, must propose a system of constitutional 
government, which shall be founded, not on the 
longing for privileges of this or that particular 
class, but on the idea, pure and simple, of the 
general welfare of the whole people, on a Just 
combination of different interests existing in 
the country, and on the necessities of the state 
as a whole." 

Whatever its weaknesses, the project answers 
to this ideal in its main purpose, and its 
appearance is certainly an event of great 
political importance. 

F. VOLKHOVSKY. 

t Tbeeditor of thereacliooary paper GriuAiJani'fi, which 
advocates privileges for the oobility. 

t Ministers of Fimmce and Agricaltare respectively, 
who are suf^KHed to repieteai Liberalism in the present 
Miniatrj, but who are strong sDpporters of Protection. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1894. 



News & Notes of the Month. 

The whole press is full of items about 
Alexander III., his successor, and Princess 
Alix of Hesse, and we are not going to repeat 
what is already universally known. We will 
rather call the attention of our readers to that 
side of the matter which was not been touched 
upon by others. The political importance of the 

E resent moment for Russia is felt by everyone, 
ut not everybody sees clearly where its im- 
portance ties. Most people ask questions about 
the personal character of the young prince 
who IS §oing to reign in Russia. They over- 
look this : At the time of Nicholas I. the 
personal character of the Russian autocrat was 
nearly everything, because not only the bulk of 
the population, but even the overwhelming 
majority of the ruling class, were an inert 
passive mass ; while the bureaucratic machine, 
through which the autocrat ruled, was unim- 
paired by any " innovations " or hbeial ideas. 
This is altogether difierent now. People who 
are awake to the consciousness of their rights 
are to be seen in Russia everywhere now, and 
a good portion of the officials themselves are 
eager to exchange the existing system for a 
better one. The routine, and only that, protects 
the old r&gmt from being broken up. Under 
such circumstances every personal change on 
the throne is that magic " Sesame " which 
breaks the spell of the routine, sets to work 
unusual feelings and thoughts, and unites dis- 
organised people. The more so under the 
present circumstances. The scarcity of news 
from Livadia, the youth of the heir to the 
crown, the mystery surrounding his marriage, 
the difficulties of the question of succession, the 
evident anxiety displayed by the whole imperial 
family, and the strictest prohibitions even to the 
governmental papers to say anything about the 
Tzar'sillnessandthe questions connected withit 
— all this has led people to discuss openly ques- 
tions which formerly they were not allowed even 
to think of. This bet is of the greatest mo- 
ment, and hen lies the importance of the coming 
personal change, 1% k 4m opportunity for tkt 
political fellings of the Russians to come to tht surfact 
— to sptak out. « « 4l 

All readers of the Russian press have been 
struck recently with the signs of a rerival of 
'social activity. New schools are being insti- 
tuted, libraries for the mass of the people 
founded, and popular lectures arranged. 
Meetings of societies, founded years ago with 
the permission of the government, whose pro- 
ceedings until recently were formal and colour- 
less, have now become lively and interesting, 
and burning questions are discussed. It would 
be instructive to give the English reader a com- 
plete picture of this revival, but our limits of 
space forbid this, and we must content ourselves 
with giving from time to time a few facts. 



There is a rule in the Russian univer^ties that 
every aspirant for a deeree must make a pubUc 
defence of the thesis which he has submitted to the 
faculty in which he wishes to CTaduate. As a means 
of obtaining a degree this public defence is only a 
formality, but aa proof of the interest taken by the 
public in this subject as well as of the popularity of 
the man, it is often very nenificant. On the 1501 of 
October last Professor N. M. Korkonnov, as candi- 
date for the degree of Doctor of Law at the 
University of St Potersburg, delendod his work 
entitled " The Ukase and the Law." The debate 
took place in the largest hall of the University, which 
was densely packed with the public anxious to bear 
the discussion. A large majority of those present 
were graduates of the University and other higher 
educational institutions. Professor Korkounov is 
weU known in Russian juridical literature, as are 
also tiis two ofBcial opponents, one of whom, Pro- 
fesBDT Sergeyevtch, is bkely to play a promhient part 
in oEBcial curies, having been recently appointed 
Secretary of State. The whole debate was aunply a 
series of compliments paid to Professor Korkounov 
by his opposers, who pronounced his work excellent. 
Subsequently, sjnid a scene of great entbuaasm, the 
degree was conferred. The dpiificance of this will 
be apparent if we remember that the subject of 
ProfiMsor Korkounov's work was really the burning 
pohtical question of the day in Russia. The ukase 
and the law are, in fact, two essentiaUy opposite 
forms of power ; the ukase representing the personal 
will of the government, which may arrest at any 
moment the operation of a law, either by abrogatine 
it, or by substituting a fresh law without the usual 
farmahties, or by modifring the working of the 
existing law, Professor Korkounov is on the nde of 
the law, which explains bis popularity. 

Our regular readers will remember the name of 
Gregory Elisseyev,* who, as a journalist, played so 
prominent and beneficial a part to Russian progress 
Tor many years. In Russia he was always looked 
upon as one of the prominent champions of progress 
and liberty, and it may be regarded as a sign ttf Uio 
thnes that a bust has lately been erected on his 
tomb. The unveiltog of this memorial took place on 
the 13th of October last, and was attendfrf^^by a 
dense crowd, among whom were the most hrlUiant 
representativesof Russian literatorein St Petersburg. 



On the i3th of October last the Mth anniversary 
of the Reformed Ecclesiastical Academy to Kiev was 
celebrated. The graduates of the Acadismyrecdved 



from the students of the Ecclesiastical Academy to 
St Petersburg a congratulatory telegiam. To tWs 
the graduates of Kiev replied on the tollowuu day to 
these terms :— " Hearty ttianks, brothers, for your 
affectkmate greetings and recollection of ufc May 
this exchaiwe of greettogs be the beginntog of a more 
effective imd sigmficant union between us 1" Union 
between all the prc^resslve elements to Russia Is 
exactly what Is most wanted at the present moment 
* * * 

The director of the higher educational courses for 
women to St, Petersburg recently resigned on the 
ground of ill-heatb. AMr.Rayevhasbeenappototed 
to succeed him. This man was the initiator of the 
project for pladng all the primary education of the 
country in the hands of tne orthodox dei^. Ad- 
mission to these conraes is very much restricted ; 

■ See the uticle about him to F. R. for Mar, 1891. 



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November i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



^. 



cnlj' 115 giria were admitted at tb« last examliiAtioa, 
*J>rse nomber of candidates having been rejected 
a^ongb there was plenty of room in tbe college. An 
additional duty baa Deen assigaed to the tutoroBsea 
Of viaitiiucthe girb at tbeir own homes, but some 
have declined to do this on the ground that it was 
introducing a system of espionage. 

A large number of those who were arrested on 
political charges in April and May laft (see Free 
Russia for June, p.p. 46-47}, are still lango^ing in 

Enson, although it was impassible for the antboiities 
) estabUsb the bet of " a criminal connection " 
unong the suspected people. Many new arrests were 
made, especially io Warsaw. In September the fallow- 
-■j persons were, among others. Incarcerated in the 
arsaw citadel : Shoblovsky (editor of a periodical), 
Shmourlo (doctor of medicine) Poplavstiy, Glosko 
OouraalisU), Petroussinsky (chemist), Pototzky, 
Vemigora, Stroajedzky (officials), &c. On October 
18th, at night, an undergraduate of the Medical 
Academy, Basil Hizhnyakov, was arrested in St. 
Petersburg. On the same night a ereat number of 
people were searched in Kharkov and many arrested. 
Amiuig the latter our correspondent meoticMiB two 
Kotlemea, Syedio and Sinitcki, and a lady, Olimpia 
Cnakay, employed in the nilway service, and several 
ondeivradnates. About 80 Poles were recently 
seued in Odessa. A young man, Sabarov by name, 
was arrested in Nicboi Novgorod, and detained in 
solitary confinement for the only reason that be 
entered Into conversatim with a soldier of the army, 
which aroused suspicion. The amonot of annoyance 
and misery caused by this lawless hunting of 
intelligent citiiens Is beyond description. After 
having taken into custody Dr. Scomourlo, for 
example, the gendarmes made a trap of his home 
and aeixed and searched all the patients who came 
to visit him for medical advice. The St. Petersburg 
undergraduate, Maluga, detained for several months 
in the House of Prdiminary Detention, committed 
suicide. Polotzkl, hi Warsaw, attempted to do the 
same. A Mr, Natanson and his wife, as well as some 
other prisoners, are seriouslv iU. Ttie well-known 
writer, P. Nicolaev, was lately released on bail, but 
hi such a conditfon of health ttiat it is a question 
whether be will live. 

« * * 

Some English papers have printed the news of 
about 30 students of the Techoolceical Institute in 
St. Petersburg having been arrested lately, for " being 
impUcated in a oihuistlc plot." The fact ot the 
anestBi8tnie,biittheexplanationgiveQ is inaccurate. 
The real cause was as follows ; T^e common di^ng 
room In the Institute was for scores of years under 
tbe management of the unde^radnates, and thus 
served practically as a kind of club. This was 
found undesirable from tbe governmental point 
of view, and the hall was taken from their 
management under tbe pretext of rmairing it ; when, 
however, the repairs were done, the dining room 
was not retnmea to the students. This led to some 
meetings of tbe young men, which proceeding as 
nsnal was Interpreted as " rebellion," and 17 
undergraduates were expelled from the Institute. 

Tbe trial of the victims of the butchery at Krozbe 
(seeFREERussiAfbr Jan., i8g4,p.4 and October p. 83) 
was concluded on October loth. Four of the accused 
were sentenced to the mines for 10 years; three to 
exile to Siberia, and many to difierent terms of 



Imprisonment. So Inconsistent with equity, however, 
was the application of tbe penal law to their doings.tbat 
the court itself resolved to intercede In their behalf 
with the Emperor, asking to replace bard labour in 
the mines, for four of the sentenced, with imprison- 
ment for a year, and to " pardon " all the rest. 



A Good Political Lesson. 

"The Peasant State : Am Accoxjnt of 

Bulgaria in 1894." by Edward Dicey, 

C.B. (John Murray, 1894). 

Does the endowment with free political 
institutions bring forth the ability to use them 
or should such privileges be withheld until 
those for whom they are claimed are already 
fully fitted to wield them ? There is a diflereace 
in the whole mental attitude in regard to 
political affairs between those who would 
answer the first, and those who would answer 
the second of these questions in the affirmative. 
It is not £ar removed from being that essential 
difference which divides those who put tlieir 
faith in democracy from those who regard it 
with distrust. 

Most readers of Free Russia may probably 
lean to the former opinion, but few would deny 
that if faith in the educative effect of the 
possession of political rights were acted upon 
blindly and recklessly, the results might be 
disastrous. 

The crucial question of Russian politics is a 
problem dep>endent for its solution on the judg- 
ment of how far the principle may be applied 
in the circumstances existent in that country. 
The anti-democrats ask what prospect there is 
of success for the introduction of a constitution 
in a country where from 80 to 90 per cent, of 
the inhabitants are of the class that were 
enfranchised from serfdom only about 30 years 
ago, and where a large proportion of these are still 
ilhterate ? The democrats express confidence 
that if free political institutions are bestowed, 
the peasants will prove themselves worthy of 
the trust placed in them. 

A political laboratory seems to be wanted, 
where the experiment may be tried on a scale 
less vast than tbe dimensions of Russia would 
necessitate. 

It is here that, lor those who occupy them- 
selves with Russian politics, the especial 
interest of Mr, Dicey's book on Bulgaria 
lies, for in Bulgaria, seemingly, the experiment 
desired has actually been tried for us under 
conditions sufficiently like those of Russia to 
make the historical lesson extremely valuable. 

Bulgaria, like Russia,is essentially " a peasant 
State." It is true the peasants who form the 
great bulk of the nation have not been sub- 
jected to three centuries of serfdom, but on 
the other hand they have been for four centuries 
under the Ottoman yoke. Their ccnnmunal 
iastituttoDS and their religioo ue like those of 



_ ji:zec by 



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94. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1894.. 



the Russians, and ethnologically they seem to 
be almost identical with the inhabitants of the 
southern parts of the empire, for they are 
described as being of Slav stock, dashed with 
an admixture of Tartar blood. 

The general resemblance of their character- 
istics as described by our author (Chapter VI.) 
to those of the Russians is striking, though it is 
rather curious to observe that they appear to 
be less like the Oukrainians of South Russia (to 
whom racially they are nearest akin) than to 
the inhabitants of Great Russia. 

The earlier chapters of " A Peasant State " 
give an historical sketch of Bulgaria, which is 
very good reading. They also give a description 
of the aspects of the people and of village life, 
and again the strong resemblance to the 
conditions extant in Russia is evident. 

There follow several chapters of particular 
interest as throwing light on the problem before 
us. These describe the constitution, the Prince, 
the estates of the realm and the ministry. Mr. 
Dicey describes the constitution as being a 
mixture of absolutism with democratic institu- 
tions. The powers of the Prince are certainly 
very extensive, but on the other hand the 
democratic political rights secured are so 
important that were they bestowed in Russia 
they would be accepted as a very fair instalment 
of what is demanded by the reform party in 
that country. 

There is universal manhood suffrage. There 
is a one-chamber parliament (the Sobranye) to 
which all citizens not less than 30 years old are 
eligible for election if they can read and write. 
One deputy sits for every 20,000 electors. " The 
members of the Sobranye are guaranteed 
absolute freedom of speech, and are not liable 
to arrest or trial during the session of parliament 
without the previous consent of the chamber." 

■ . . " The parliament thus constituted 
possesses absolute authority to pass laws, to 
impose taxes, (o provide the funds required for 
the administration of the state, either by loans 
or by taxation, and to discuss and modify the 
budget." On the other hand the Prince has 
the right of veto, and our author remarks : 
" No provision is made, on the one hand, for 
the contingency of the Prince refusing to 
sanction the laws passed by the Sobranye ; or, 
on the other hand, for the eventuality of the 
Sobranye leiuwig to provide the funds demanded 
by the executive as necessary for the service of 
the state." 

Mr. Dtcey's book is not one that can be 
compared in solidity with such works as Mr. 
Bryce's on the American Constitution. It is 
not so much a standard manual, as a series of 
articles which might have been contributed to 
^good London daily paper by "Our Special 
Commissioner." Still his cautious and unenthu- 
siastic temperament, his evident endeavour to 
give a trustworthy accouot of what he saw, and 



the pains he has taken to investigate his subject, 
make his book authoritative on the state of 
modern Bulgaria. What account then does 
our author give of the results of bestowing such 
political institutions as these on Slav peasants ? 
The book itself must be read for a complete 
answer ; it gives on the whole a very satisfac- 
tory one. In the main the constitutioo is 
worked fairly ; the worst thin^ we hear of in 
the course of the book, and it is certainly very 
serious, is the tampering with the results of the 
poll at elections, but the author is of opinion 
that if the returns were falsified to the extent 
of going seriously against the wishes of the 
electors on any question in which they were 
really interested, the irregularities would not be 
tolerated. Amongst the ofGcials there is no 
corruption that can for a moment be compared 
to that which is rampant in Rus»a, though Mr. 
Dicey considers that the standard maintained 
is not so high as in English public life. 
Commerce and industry are growing with 
healthy steadiness, the finances of the country 
are not only sound, they are regulated with 
almost excessive caution ; the army is efficient: 
" If the necessity should arrive, Bulgaria could 
at once mobilize an army of 100,000 men, well 
provided with arms, amunition, and means of 
transport, and ready to take the field at very 
brief notice." " The men are well fed, weU 
clothed and well housed." Justice is adminis- 
tered efficiently, and though foreigners still have 
the right of taking their, cases to the consular 
courts they often prefer the native .tribunals. 

The most striking chapter in the book is 
perhaps that on public education, which opens 
with the sentence : " The desire for education 
amidst the Bulgarian peasantryamounts almost 
to a passion." The Sobranye votes about one- 
seventh of the whole of the nation's expenditure 
for public education, which is gratuitous and 
compulsory up to la years old, with a further 
gratuitous course (if desired by the parents} 
up to 18 years old. The whole country is well 
provided with primary schools, and some of 
the secondary schools (that, for example, at 
Philippopolis) are such that any country might 
regard them with satisfaction. The school- 
masters are paid well in comparison with other 
professions in Bulgaria, and the pupils who 
attend the schools treat their studies with the 
seriousness of the Scotch or German school-boy 
or girl. 

This is what has been attained for education 
under the Bulgarian constitution. It will be 
remembered that under the Russian autocracy 
those who can read and write or, indeed, even 
those who have the chance of going to school 
at all, are still quite a small minority. Can we 
wonder then, that whilst the Bulgarian peasant 
is making steady progress towards a life of 
comfort and plenty, in Russia the consumption 
of corn and teztUe frabrics has considerably 



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November i, 1894. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



95 



diminished during the last 15 yeais? Russia is 
acportin^ more eratn than it used to do, not 
because it is producing more, but because it is 
coHsuming Isss ; whilst the average holding of the 
peasants in land is three-quarters of what is 
used to be. 

On the whole then, the results of the political 
experiments in Bulgaria give considerable 
groundsforencouragement to Russian reformers. 
H. M. Thompson. 



Further Mutilation of the 
''Mir!' 

. With the institution of the urnii^ nachalniks 
one might have thought that the self-govern- 
ment of Russian village-communities was 
sufBciently ruined, and that there was not 
much left to be abolished, as all the resolutions 
passed by the peasants at their village meetings 
were put under the control of and could be 
arbitrarily stopped by those officials. But 
recently the intelligence has reached us through 
the Russian papers, that the Tzar's government 
wants to go mrther, and intends to abrogate the 
right ofevery peasant-householder (consequently 
taxpayer) to participate directly in all communal 
affairs by discussing them and voting at the 
communal meetings. Instead of the old system, 
the management of the communal affairs is to 
be placed in the hands of a few representatives, 
elected by the householders. At the same time 
women are to be deprived of their rights as 
members of the community. 

To enable our readers to understand better 
the meaning of the proposed plan, we must 
remind them that the Great Russian mir, or 
its Oukrainien equivalent hromada, has existed 
and worked very satisfactorily from time im- 
memorial. We must not forget either that its 
jurisdiction, though limited only to members of 
one community, is exceedingly wide and deals 
with a large number of subjects. The communal 
meeting elects the communal judges and com- 
munal officials ; it imposes the communal taxes, 
and decides at what rate householders should be 
assessed for the provincial or state taxes, 
imposed on the communes by the umslvos, or 
the central government ; it fixes the duties of 
different members of the commune in the village 
fire brigade ; it determines the order in which 
different villagers have to lend their horses for 
official purposes or to go themselves on some 
duty imposed on the community by the higher 
authorities ; it decides upon the way in which 
the defaulting taxpayers under its jurisdiction 
are to be dealt with in order to make them 
pay, which sometimes means forcing them into 
service or into work for the benefit of the 
communal exchequer; it deals with quarrels 
between (lifferent members of the village, nay — 
between members of the same family ; it has 



even the right of excluding any member from 
the commune as " vicious," after which the 
state sends him to settle in Siberia. One may 
fairly say that nine-tenths of the life of a 
Russian peasant are dependent upon the 
decisions of the communal meetings. This 
shows at once its essential difference from any 
other merely legislative body. While a legisla 
tive assembly has to deal with general questions 
and measures which do not and cannot take 
into consideration the idiosyncracies of each 
separate person and his or her position, the 
communal meeting works at least as much at 
the best adaptation of general measures to 
individuals, and at the reconciliation of jarring 
personal interests. It is not difficult to see, 
therefore, that direct participation of every 
member of the commune in its communal 
meetings is the best possible way of dealing 
with its a^airs, and that the creation in its 
stead of a small communal council, even though 
elective, would simply mean placing the indi- 
vidual interests of the majority at the mercy of 
an insignificant minority. 

Why, then, all this projected tampering with 
ao institution, which was created centuries ago 
by the necessities of life itself, to which the 
population has become accustomed and which 
has survived all other historical changes ? 
There is only one logical key to that riddle : it 
is always easier to keep in the grasp a small 
body o) men, than a large one, and this is in 
the interest of bureaucracy as well as of 
autocracy. 

(To be concluded.) 



Letter to the Editor. 

Dear Sib, 

Having been abroad, I only the other week came 
acroBS the September number of Free Russia 
containing a severe criticism of the Russian costume 
in which I appear at my lectures. You are right in 
stating that the elements of my dress are borrowed 
from various Russian nationalities, but you are not 
right in declaring that the " pointed cap is altogether 
bntasdc," nor that I "introduce features of doubtful 
taste " into my " evenings." The cap I copied from 
a Kirghiz tribe, and aa to the good or doubtful taate 
with which I arrange the decorative part of my 
lectures, British audiences are quite qualified to 
judge for themselves, and I have the satisfaction of 
knowing that my lectures have been tiighly appreci- 
ated Id every respect both by representatives of the 
press and by eminent men of this country. 

I can explain the iy>pearance of the incnminaling 
paragraph in Fkeb Russia only by some misunder- 
standing on your part, and trust you will do me 
justice in inserting these hoes. 

Yours in the sacred cause of the liberation 
native country, 

,-- ,- . ,, JAAKOFP PREI 

), Thirlestane Road, Edinburgh. 
[It is just because Mr. Preelooker'a lectures " hare 
been highly appreciated In every respecfby British 
aufliences, that we ttiink it is bis duty to call things 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1894. 



what theji are, and not appear tn a motley costnme 
lepresenting various nationalities and call it Russian. 
We are in no sense unfriendly to Mr. Preelooker, 
and consider the subjects of his lectures so important 
that their efTect should not be spoiled by any 
inaccuracy.— Ed. F. R.] 



Meetings. 

The Executive Couhitteb of the Socieh' of 
Friends of Rnsaiaa Freedom met at 276, Strand, on 
Wednesday, October 3rd. Ptestnt: Mrs. Mallet, 
Mrs. Voymch, Messrs. AUanson Picton.j. F. Green, 
Pease, Riz, H. Thompson, also Messrs. Stepoiakaad 
Volkbovsky. Dr. S. Watson occupied the chair. The 
minutes were read and also letters regretting their 
absencefirom Mrs. Sidgwlck, and Mr. Wm. Thompson. 
Mr. Volkhovsky made a report to the Committee aboat 
the inlemalional bunting of Russian refugees, and 
[)roposed that a meeting should be held In conjuac- 
tion with the Personal Rights Association and some of 
the socialistic and other societies for the purpose of 
bringing this question before public, to point out the 
■ danger of the existence of any sort of alliance for the 
purpose of banishing refugees between the police of the 
variousEuropean countries. He then asked permisaon 
toiotroduce Mr. Sett treny, who gaveaverv interesting 
history of his sudden banishment from France, after 
he bad peacefully resided there for 10 years. At the 
suggestion of Mr. AUanson Picton, it was resolved 
that the London press should be urged to bring 
before the pubUc the facts about the recent baniahmeot 
of Russian refugees from the various countries of 
Europe, and it was agreed to defer considering the 
proposal of holding a public meeting until it should 
be seen whether or not the question was taken up 
by any of the leading London papers. 

Derby. — A public reading of striking passages from 
G, Kennan's book, " Siberia and the Exile System," 
was arranged in the town by some Friends of 
Russian Freedom on October 25th. The reading 
was illustrated by 30 lantern views, kindly lent by 
Mr, T. Laurie. 

Newcastle-on-Tvne. — S. Stepniak lectured on 
Octot>er zznd, for the Newcastle Literary and 
Philosophical Society, on Russian literature. The 
large hall was fall and Uie audience very appreciative. 

Worcester.— On Tuesday, October and, Mrs. 
Rowland Berkeley read at the students' meeting her 
first paper on Russtaa novelists. Her first essay 
dealt with Gogol, Goncharov and Tonrgenev, and 
we are glad to learn that Ihougb " Smoke " and '■ Virgin 



Scril," are the beat known of bis novels In this 
country, Mrs. Berkeley coosidera them to be Inferior 
to some of his earlier works, his short stories among 
them. According to Tht Woretiter Herald, " Mrs. 
Berkelev has done her criticism so sympathetically 
and with such intense appreciation of the ethical ana 
literary qualities observslble in theae works, that she 
has invested her pen-pictnres with striking vitality. 
We not only wish to read these writers for ourselves ; 
we already feel that through the medium of ber 
descdption their heroes and heroines are living 
characters, whose acquaintance we have made, 
thanks to her introduction, and with whom we 
desire to have more intimate relations." Those 
whose " appetite was whetted by her description of 
their contents " will be pleased to leani that 
Tourgenev's " Rudin," " Llia" and " Fathers and 
Sons," either were or are being published by Mr. 
Heinemann in an excellent translation from the 
original Russian, by Hra. Edw. Gamett. 

During November the following lectures are to be 
delivered by Mr. F. Volkhovsky: on the ist (at 8 

£m.), at the Leighton Buzzard Institute, " Exile Life 
Siberia " (illustrated b^ lantern views) ; on the 4th 
(3 p.m.), at Forest Gate m connection with the Field 
Road United Methodist Free Churcb, " How I 
Escaped to Freedom "; on the i^th (B p.m.), at the 
New Somerville Clnb, 231, Oxford Street, " The 
Story of My Life"; on the ijth (arranged by Mrs. 
Macdonald and other Friends of Russian Freedom), 
at Derby, "How I Escaped";ou the aist,lu con- 
nection with the St. Getu^'s Churcb, Bloonubnry, 
" How I Escaped." 

Will other lecturers kindly inform ua of th^ 
coming lectures in time to be advertised ? 

Ctpoulaps explaining the alma and the wortc 
of the Society of Friends of Russian Fpewtom 
to be had from the Hon. SaoretKPy. 

Minimum memtiepshlp subscription 6/- yeariy. 
Including the reoelpt of " Free Russia" post free ; 
but all donations ore received with gratitude. 

WANTED, Second-hand: i, "Underground 
Russia"; 2, " Russia under the Tzar"; 3, 
" Within an Ace " ; 4, " Caieer of a Nihilist." 
— Apply by Letter to Miss Laing, 33, Hutt 
Street, Gateshead. 



THE SOCIETY OF 
FuTthsr Utt 



FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

of Babsorlptloiu of 8s. 6d, uid opvarcla. 



Herri. Kjellberg, Sweden I 
Mrs. Ronalds, Hereford ... 
Mils Gerda Odmann, East 

Croydon 

A Friend 

Alfred Ford, London ... 1 
Mrs. Bevington Atkinson, 

Guildford I 

Dorothea Pughe lotws. 

North Wales . 

Mary J. Home, Swansea... I 
Miss Louisa C. Shore, 

Taplow I 



Mrs, Agnes Thompson, 

Crowliorough 2 

William Thompson, Crow- 

borougb 6 



Mrs. G. 



Oxford 10 

Mrs. Fredk. Brown, Stoke 

Newugton, N S 6 

Per Miss G. L. Mallet : 

Mr. Hans Volk, Wiesbaden 2 6 
Lady Dorothy Howard, 

Carlisle 6 

Rev. H. Martin* Camforth 6 



Per Ward & Foxlow : 
Dr. G. Natanson, Texaa.\ 

U.S.A 

Miss B. H. Thomas. New 

York. U.S.A 

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Dorchester, U.S.A. ... 
Mr.F.J.GarrisoD, Boston, 

VSK 

Mr. Mosbtner. New York 

City, U.S.A 

Mr. Akdnikoff, New York 

City, U,S.A , 



Printed and I'ublisbed by Wara A Foilow, 113, Cbnrcb Street, London, N.W.— November ist, 1894. 



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THE oaaAir or the ziraLiSB 

"$ocietv of ^jriends of 'glusstan freedom." 

Regist«rad aa a Newspaper fop Transmlsaion Abroad. 

Vol. 4.— No. 8.] LONDON, NEW YORK A ZUBICH: MARCH 1st, 1893. [Om P«ki«. 

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Individual ctmtrihuton are alone respOHsible fin' ail statements in their communications. 
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Advertisements received up to the 25th of each month will appear in the next issue. Advertisements in 

the English, American and German editions at reduced rates. 
ComMunicalions with regard to the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom should be addressed to the 

Honorary Secretary (Mr. W. Mackeniie), 24, ReicUffe Gardens, South Kensington, London, S, If, 

JVew Book on the Theoty of Wages. 



The theory of WAGES. 

AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE 

Eight Hours' Question, 

And other Labour Problems, 

By Herbert M. Thompson, m.a. 



Cvo-w-n 8vo, Cloth. PRXCE3 3h. Qd. 



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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The EDglish Society of Friende of Ruasitui Freedom, founded Id April, 1690, has for It objects to aid, to 
the extent of its powers, tbe Russian patriots wbo are trying to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationmlity 
or political creed, who cannot witness with indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tzars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Russian people. Further contributions to the funds and 
furtherwork are needed and will be welcome. Membership is acquired by sending to the Treasurer an annua] 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members ue entitled to receive Free Russia post free. 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Those marked with an *, form the Executive Committee. 



Rt.Kon.A.H.DykaAaland,M.P. 

Rev. Charles A. Berry. 

Rev. Stopford A. Brooke. 

Percy W. Bunting. 

Thomas Burt, M.P. 
■W. P. Sylea, M.P. 

The CounteM of Carlltls. 

Rev. W. Moore Eds. 

J. E. Ellia, M.P. 

MiM Isabella 0. Ford. 
•L T. HoMkhim. 



Rev. Page Hopps. 

R- A. Hudaon. 
■Mra. Edwin Human. 

Rt. Hon. il. Q.8haw-Lerevre,M 

R. Mavnard Leonard. 

John Maodonald. 
■Mr*. Charles Mallat. 

Rev. Donald Morrison. 
•E.J. C- Morton, MP. 

J. Fletcher Moulton, Q.Q. 
*Mrt. Edward R. Pease. 



'Edward R. Peats. 

•Q. H. Perrls. 

■if. Allanton Pioton, M.P. 

Mrs. HerbsK Rlx. 
■Herbert Rlx. 

H. Roberts. 

Joshua Rowntree. 

Wm. Saunders, LCC, M.P. 
■Adolphs Smith. 
■Qeo. Standring, 

Henry 0. Ettephem, M.P. 



ifamM Stuart, M.P. 
■Herbert M. Thompsan. 
•Wm, Thorn peon, 

J. S. Trotter. 
■T. Fisher Unwin. 

Mrt. E. Spenoe Watson. 

Alfr«d Webb, M.P, 
■Miss Helen Webb. M,B. 
•Mra. H. Q. Webb. 

Henry il. Wilson, M.P. 



•Robert Spenoe Watson, LLD., Hon. TVRUwyr, Bensham Grove, Gateshead. 
• William W. Mackenzie, Hon. 8ter*lani, 34, Reddiffe Gardens, South Kenshigion, London, S.W. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



X> A. XhK X> ZZ Xa EI ^Z<^ S 

Published by the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 



a. The Flogging of Political Exiles in Russia. Price 
^. : post free, id. (and edition in preparation.) 

3. To the Arctic Zone. Price ad. ; post free, ltd. 



Are Russian Internal AfiUrs any Concern of Ours? 
by H, M. Thompson: with a preface by Dr R. 
Spence Watson. Price, 3d. ; post free, 3I1I 



All the above may be had of the Manager of Frbe 
Russia, 3, Iffley Road, Hammersmith, or the Secretary 
rftb. SFR. r. 



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February i, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



CONTENTS. 

Our Edinburgh Branch. — Inlirview with Dr. 
Spenu WatsoH.—Biskop Phillips Brooks (by S. 
Sfepnittk).—Dkirtsi in Russia. ^Brjneh Work. — 
Meetings {Stcrelary's report) and Rfvieu/s (by S. 
StepniakSy—" Midta and Vania," by Shrhedrin 
(Saltykov) concluded. 

London, February i, 1393. 
A BOUT this time last year, all the Russian 
■"- papers were flood^ witli articles upon 
the famine and with correspondences from the 
distressed provinces. Relief committees were 
sitting in all the principal towns. From the 
pulpit the priests made appeals to public 
charity and the officials were invited and 
encouraged to set the example. Famine was 
the subject of the day. 

Awakening, though somewhat late, to the 
consciousness of the extent of the calamity, the 
government understood that it was in its own 
interest, both iinanciat and political, to obtain 
material help from whatsoever source. The 
zemstvos, the municipalities, the private citizens 
and the press were called upon to take their 
part in the common efforts. Individual and 
collective initiative was allowed freer scope last 
year in the country of the Tzai than ever before. 
And the result was that the terrible calamity 
did not produce one hundredth part of its 
possible effect. 

Although the number of destitute persons in 
the 16 famine stricken provinces reached the 
enormous figure of 34,000,000, we have heard 
very little of anything like actual starvation ; 
That is the testimony of the Russian andforeign 
observers and participants in the great work. 

Now again Russia is in the deadly grasp of 
a new famine, which is not so extensive as that 
of last year, but unfortunately only the more 
acute. It (ould be foreseen long ago, and it was 
long ago announced in our paper. It is no 
longer denied by the government, which has 
published a list of 20 provinces where relief 
will be needed. According to a very moderate 
and cautious estimate, no less than 10,000,000 
peasants are left without means of subsistence, 
and they will require at the lowest estimate 
^10,000,000 {£1 per head. Russian peasants 
are accustomed to short rations I) 

Whence is this money to come? The state 
exchequer is exhausted by the heavy drain of 
last year, which exceeded ^^16,000,000. One 
would think that after the recent great success 
of the frank and harmonious co-operation of all 
the living forces of the nation, the natural thing 
would be to resort with more heart and boldness 
to the same method. But what is going on in 
Russia is quite different and very surprising 
indeed. The government has changed its tactics 
and is now wavering and hesitating, trying to 



hide with one hand what it discovers with the 
other. 

The Official Messenger publishes this year's 
agricultural returns, showing that of the 16 
provinces which fuffeed last-year none has a 
normal harvest, some of them having but one- 
half, one-third, and one-fourth of the average 
returns {Official Misunger, No. 364). 

This means famine in the full sense of the 
terrible word. The thing is as clear as if it 
were written on the sky in letters of fire. There 
is evidently some influence in high quarters 
making for publicity ; but other influences of 
an opposite nature get the upper hand. Our 
St. Petersburg correspondent tells of the scan- 
dalous efforts of the government to hush up the 
famine, to prevent the press from speaking 
about it, to discourage practical attempts at 
assisting the suEferers. 

We call the attention of our readers to this 
communication. Its truthfulness cannot be 
doubted for one moment. The press and society 
in Russia are silent, indifferent, frivolous, as if 
the Russians were so many savage beasts, 
insensible to everything except their personal 
comfort ; as if they did not know or care that 
by their side are millions of their unfortunate, 
starving brethren. But they do care, they do 
know and think about it. 

It has been proved again and again that the 
famine of last year was due mainly to the 
general ruin of the people caused by misgovern- 
ment of every kind, the inclemency of the sky 
being only the last drop which made the cup 
overflow. The thinking men have learned this 
by heart. But to those who were in the habit 
of thinking little or not at all it was still possible 
to represent the calamity as the result of the 
blind forces of Nature. Now it is no longer 
possible. One famine after another, with the 
prospect of a third one ; this is the work of men 
and not of Nature. That is why the govern- 
ment has taken alarm, prohibited the formation 
of relief societies, and sent to the press these 
shameful warnings — "Not to excite public 
opinion ! " " Not to exaggerate the calamity ! " 
As if the danger lay in men subscribing too 
much, not too little and taking their duties 
too seriously ! 

But murder will out. 

If news of such absorbing interest cannot be 
communicated to the public through the ordin- 
ary channel of the press, it will be spread 
privately by people writinB and talking to each 
other. And there are public spirited men of 
such high positions that the government dare 
not silence them by force. We publish the 
letter of one of them. Count Eobrinsky, a 
marshal of nobility in the province of Toula. 
Whilst all around keep silence from fear, one 
such voice spreads far and rings out clearly. 

Now, what will be the feelings and attitude 
of educated Russia, the Russia which takes an 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1893. 



interest in public affairs, when it realises that the 
present government has Dot only caused these 
sufferings of the people, but out of cowardly 
selfishness, knowingly and cynically prevents 
them from being alleviated ? What will be the 
attitude of the p^&ple themselves face to face 
with starvation ? Will their patience stand 
that test ? 



Public Meeting of the 
Edinburgh Branch. 

THIS meeting was held in the saloon of 
the Royal Hotel on Friday, January 
13th at 3 p.m. The Lord Provost presided, 
and was accompanied to the platform by Dr. R, 
Spence Watson, president of the Society, 
Newcastle-on-Tyne ; Bailie GuUand, chairman 
of the Edinburgh branch ; Bailie Walcott, 
Professor Simpson, of the Congregational Theo- 
logical Hall ; Rev. Dr. Adamson, Mr. James 
Durran, Mr. James M'lntosh, S.S.C, Mr. D. 
W, Wallace, S.S.C, secretarjj of the branch ; 
and Mr. Ryness, a Russian immigrant. The Lord 
Provost said he had doubts as to whether anyone 
outside of Russia could do much to forward the 
movement for greater freedom in that country. 
He believed that if any people would be free 
theymustdependchiefly upon themselves, Atthe 
same time, sympathy and aid could materially 
help those struggling for freedom, and it had 
been the proud boast of this country that they 
had been ready to give sympathy and support 
whenever it had been required. 

Dr. Spence Watson, who, on rising to speak, 
was well received by those present, began by 
explaining the motives and objects of those 
who founded the Society. Referring next to 
the condition of Russian affairs in general, he 
explained that the area of discussion was so 
vast that he could refer only to three points : f r) 
The religious question, (2) Finland, and (3) the 
peasantry. The Greek Church is not only a 
very absolute Church, but the Tzar is its 
head and master in a very emphatic sense, 
though the Canon of the Church may proclaim 
him its elder son. Dissent, or at least attempts 
at proselytising, is very severely dealt with. 
The sect of the Stundists is probably not 40 
years in existence, but it already numbers 
several millions and is increasing with great . 
rapidity. There is nothing political in their 
constitution and indeed they are particularly 
loyal. Though not socialistic but individualistic 
they regard property as a sacred trust, and are 
ever ready to assist others in distress, yet this 
sect is persecuted with intense ferocity, they 
are imprisoned, flogged, ironed, deprived of 
civil rights and exiled to Siberia ; but this 
treatment, so far from destroying the Stundist 
faith or even driving it below the surface, only 
increases their numbers, and it may be that 



from this very persecution there may proceed 
the solution of great difficulties of the Russian 
people. Finland has a constitution of its 
own, which was guaranteed by Alexander II. 
in 1863 and the present Tzar in 1882. Its 
population of some 2,000,000 occupies a country 
where nature places almost every di£Bculty in 
the way of human advancement, yet has been 
overcome by this remarkable people. Their 
system of education is thorough, universal, 
and practical. They have solved the land 
question and the temperance question. They 
nave been only too successful for Russian 
ideas, and their mdependence is being seriously 
tampered with. Their educational system, 
customs, free press, and post office have all 
been interfered with during the past six or eight 
years, and it now seems as if Finnish Hherty 
would soon disappear entirely. The peasantry : 
The great movements now in progress in Russia 
start from the land question and the emancipa- 
tion of the serfs. Had the emancipation and 
kindred movements been carried out as con- 
ceived there would have been no Russian 
question today. The serf was not a slave, and 
the idea was generally held that the land was no 
man's property. Before the emancipation the 
serf gave as a rule three days in the week to 
the cultivation of his lord's land and three 
days to his own. There was a popular saying 
from serfs to landowners : " We are yours, but 
the land is ours." Now the State peasants pay 
an average of 98!% of the produce of their 
lands in taxes while other peasants pay an 
average of ig8%.* Thepeasant has thus to find 
labour elsewhere, and in an ordinary year can 
do it. But in a bad year the work is not there 
' to be done, and he is driven to borrow on the 
security of his labour, which he hypothecates 
by documents of a very stringent character, and 
at what is practically ruinous interest. In 1S61, 
when the emancipation was effected, there 
were no agricultural proletarians in all Russia, 
but at a congress of farmers in Moscow^ held six 
or eight years ago, the chairman stated there 
were then 20,000,000 who had been ruined by 
excessive taxation and usury. This growing 
distress resulted some 20 years ago in great 
numbers of men and women of the upper classes 
going out to the people as political propa- 
gandists, giving up all they neld dear, and 
having prison, and possibly death as the 
goal before them. These are the facts that 
impelled us to originate our Society. It has 
already produced some effect on the Russian 
government, but far more than that, it has 
cheered the hearts of many in that country, and 
even in the most distant parts of Siberia. 
Professor Simpson, of the Congregational 

* This seems absurd, but ret so it is. The peasants 
oftea pay men than Ihey get from the land, which tb^ 
have no right to give up. They make u(> (oi the delidi 
by winter work in lowos and borne industries. — [Eo.l 



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Theological Hall, formerly minister of the 
British and American Congregational Church, 
St. Petersburg, followed, and spoke of the 
difficulty of getting at the realfacts. The court 
circles could not be trusted, and one must go to 
the people themselves and to their writers to 
see what is actually being done. He strongly 
defended the aims of the Society in affording 
encouragement to a downtrodden people. 

Mr. RvNESS, a Jew, explained briefly the 
difficulties placed in the way of his obtaining 
an education and entering the legal profession 
in Russia. After successfully overcoming these 
he was only permitted to practice for aj years, 
when the revival of the May laws ousted him. 
His father had to leave Russia and pretend Co 
abandon his family to evade confiscation of his 
property, and he himself, after finding hfe 
intolerable in Russia, joined his father in 
England. 

Rev. Wm. Adamson, D.D., moved that 
" This meeting heartily sympathises with the 
work of the Society of Friends of Russian 
Freedom, and invites all lovers of liberty to 
help the Society by subscribing to its funds, 
circulating its paper, and seeking to arouse in 
this country a protest against the cruelty and 
despotism of the Russian autocracy." 

Rev. James Durran, M.A., seconded, and 
the resolution was adopted unanimouslv. 

Votes of thanks to Dr. Watson and the other 
speakers, which were heartily given, terminated 
a most successful meeting. 



Interview with Dr. Spence 
Watson upon "Free Russia." 

(From the Scottish Leader, January 14th, 1893.) 

A QUARTER of an hour before his train 
•^*- started from Waveriey Station for New- 
castle yesterday afternoon. Dr. R. Spence 
Watson, who founded the Society of Friends 
of Russian Freedom, was surrounded by a 
host of friends, all eager to shake hands with 
so distinguished a Liberal. Dr. Watson was in 
high spirits, for, as the Lord Provost observed, 
judging from the attendance at other gatherings 
held in the saloon of the Royal Hotel, the first 
public meeting of the Edinburgh branch, of 
which Bailie Culland is the genial and energetic 
president, had proved a great success. Having 
only a few minutes to work upon, the time spent 
in Jriendly intercourse proved no less trying to 
the nerves of the interviewer than to the 
patience of the waiters who bustled about laying 
tables for a laige company that were imme- 
diately expected. At length Dr. Watson was 
disengaged, Bailie Gulland introduced the 
Leader representative to him, and all three 
adjourned to the drawing-room. Dr. Watson 



seemed to feel very lightly the discourage- 
ments met during the early days of the move- 
ment in this country. " I first thought of the 
matter in 1889," he said, "through becoming 
personally acquainted with Stepniak and 
Krapotkin, later on with Volkhovsky, who 
joined the Russian colony in London at the end 
of 1890. I discussed with my Russian friends 
what should be done, and in December 1SS9 I 
sent out circulars explaining our objects and 
asking for funds. For all our trouble," he 
added, with a laugh, " we received only seven 
replies and 30s. in subscriptions. 

" Far from being discouraged I wrote to a 
few friends, held a meeting in London which 
attracted the attention of the Pall Mali Gaiette, 
and then started the Society. But it was still 
uphill work, for the members at first consisted 
only of Mr. Byles, M.P. for Bradford, Mr. Burt, 
my wife and myself." 

Then as to future work ? " All I expect ia 
that the Society will ei^able us to publish our 
monthly Fkee Russia on a more extended 
scale, and with the freshest information on 
the situation in Russia. 

Your paper circulates in Russia notwith- 
standing press censorship ? — " ft does. You 
see," he pleasantly observed, " we know what 
it is to'be enterpiising. How does it get into 
Russia? Ah; that I cannot tell." And here 
a very agreeable reminiscence seemed to Hash 
across his mind. " Our paper circulates all 
over the world. We send it to the missionaries 
in Lebanon, to New Zealand, Paraguay, Natal, 
and Johannesburg. In Johannesburg we have 
a great force of supporters ; and we hava 
societies in Germany and America. 

" It is true our funds are small, but we have 
no large subscribers, and there is all the more 
reason for enlarging the circle of our friends. 
It takes a great deal of money to enable a man 
to escape from Siberia — £"100 perhaps. Several 
of these exiles we would be very glad to rescue, 
if only we had the means. Our publication 
penetrates even the artJc regions of Siberia, 
where there are no more than three postal 
deliveries in the year. We find that these 
exiles — man^ of them connected with the 
highest families in the land — are comforted and 
gladdened by the assurances of sympathy in 
Great Britain, and it arouses in them an ardent 
desire to escape. 

" How do we manage it ? There again you 
are coming to close quarters. One of the 
refugees now in London recently escaped from 
Constantinople where, the Russian Embassy 
was trying to arrest him. Kielchevsky was the 
last who escaped from Siberia. He came over 
to this country just over two years ago. The 
idea of coming to England first entered his mind 
upon reading one of the original circulars we sent 
out. Thisincident isofsomeinterestasshowing 
that our literature really reaches the quarters 



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February i, 1895. 



for which it is intended. In Siberia that circular 
was multiplied under great difficulty by 
thousands. 

With a remark as to the credit which attached 
to Edinburgh in having the first society tormed 
out of London, Dr. Spence Watson left for the 
Waverley Station in company with Bailie 
Gulland. 

Bishop Phillips Brooks. 

%V'E receive the melancholy news of the death 
' " of Phillips Brooks of Massachusetts, 
the great preacher, and one of the earliest 
members of the American branch of our society. 

In Anglo-Saxon countries the clergy hold a 
position for which there is no equivalent on Che 
continent. Having no spirit of caste, no general 
organisation to which the plurality of religious 
tenets would form an insuperable obstacle, the 
English and An^erican clergy do not hold aloof 
from the political and social interests of the 
country, do not view great national issues from 
a selfish class point of view, and therefore always 
can keep in touch with the progress of the 
time. Only in England and America we find 
clergymen mixed up with, even sometimes 
leading, intellectual and social movements of 
diametrically opposed character, includmg 
those which the majority of the community still 
recognise as hostile and ruinous to established 
views and institutions. And this apparent 
carelessness for class interests, this putting the 
duties of the citizen above those of the member 
of a certain class, has secured to the clergy as a 
body an influence which the Catholic Church 
was able to possess only when helped by 
universal ignorance and superstition. 

The late Bishop Phillips Brooks was not an 
extremist, in America at least, for in other 
countries he would have been considered as an 
extremist aud even revolutionist. But he was 
the best and noblest representative of that 
broad humanitarian spirit which has preserved 
to the church its vitality on both sides of the 
Atlantic. 

I do not intend, however, to speak here of the 
vast influence of the eminent preacher and 
writer upon the thoughts of his generation. 
My object is to say a few words upon his con- 
necticm with the movement of which Free 
Russia is the organ. I am indebted for the 
honour of a personal acquaintance with the late 
Bishop Phillips Brooks, to Mrs. Daland, the 
gifted author of "John Ward the Preacher." 
She took a warm interest in the foundation of 
our American branch, which was then organised 
in Boston, and being an intimate friend of 
Phillips Brooks, invited him to one of the 
early meetings in connection with the move- 
ment, which was held in her house. 

Phillips Brooks was not a bishop at that time, 
and being a new comer I knew nothing of his 



Eosition in Boston and in the States. To me 
e was simply one of the Boston clergymen. 
But it was impossible not to be struck by his 
majestic appearance, his noble, manly face, in 
which energy seemed to struggle with frank, 
hearty benevolence that had not a trace of 
priestly benignity, and the surprising brilliancy 
and quickness of his intelligence, which he 
revealed even in the questions he put. We 
had a long conversation upon general Russian 
topics, which was led almost entirely by him. 
He showed an interest in everything : in the 
Russian religious movement and its possible 
bearings ; in the agrarian laws prevailing among 
our peasantry ; in the peculiar position of the 
bureacracy and the Tzar ; in the character of 
Russian literature and the periodical press ; in 
the woman question. He professed to be quite 
ignorant about Russia, but to me it seemed as 
if he already knew everything and asked me 
only by way of confirmation. His quick mind 
ran in advance of my explanations. He guessed 
from the first sentences what would follow, and 
surprised me by the remarks and suggestions of 
a fellow student of the subject and not of an 
attentive listener. 

Later on I went to hear him preach, and my 
early impressions recurred to me. Those who 
have only read his sermons and not heard them 
cannot have an idea of that torrent-like rush ol 
thought, which strained to the utmost both the 
elocutionaiy power of the orator and the 
attention of the listeners. And yet there was 
not a word toomuchortoohttle, not a sentence 
which was not beautifully finished, not an idea 
that was not made perfectly lucid. It revealed 
a mind of surprising resources and flexibility, 
resembling those wonderful electric machines, 
the creation of modem inventive genius, which 
make I do not know how many thousand 
vibrations in one minute, each as precise and 
well defined as the other. 

After an hour's conversation Phillips Brooks 
said that he had got more information than if 
he had read several books upon Russia. Very 
likely he had, and the credit of it is due certainly 
to hira and not to me. 

A few days afterwards his election as Bishop of 
Massachusettstook place. Idid not think that 
in his new position Fhitlips Brooks would have 
time or indeed would care to have his name 
associated with a movement against which so 
many prejudices stand. But my Boston friends, 
who Knew him better, were of a different opinion. 
Acting upon their advice, I wrote to him. 

The next day the waiter of the small hotel 
where I had put up surprised me most agree- 
ably by announcing Phillips Brooks, who came 
himself to ask for explanations on certain points. 

We had another talk upon the practical 
objects of our society, the importance of 
enlisting on our side American public opinion 
and the influence of foreign agitation upon 



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February i, 1893. 



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23 



Russian political emancipation. He took with 
him some of our literature, and a day ot two 
later be wrote to Mr. F, Garrison a letter saying 
that it gave him particular pleasure to join the 
society. 

He has a full right to the name of one of its 
initiators, and we can claim him as ours. The 
society was then at its beginning. His great 
name was one of the best guarantees of its 
duration and success. 

He is dead now, together with two other men 
great in mind and heart : Lowell and Whittier. 
But their memory will always remain associated 
with the new society which stands as a pledge 
of true sympathy and goodwill to the Russian 
people, and will contribute its mite to secure for 
them a better future. 

S. Stbfniak- 



Distress in Russia, 

rjOUNT BOBRINSKY, a Russian Marshal 
of nobility, has addressed the following 
letter to the Rmnan GautU, giving a vivid 
picture of the terrible position of the peasantry 
in the Government of Tula : As an inhabitant 
of Bogorodetzk, in the Government of Tula, 
I deem it my duty to call your attention to 
i)u dislresi prevailing at ike present moment, and con- 
siderably exceeding that occasioned by the bad harvest last 
year. Misery, sickness, and in sundry places actual Jamine 
areagaininourmidst. Last yearour district suffered 
from the effects of a severe economical crisis. 
Owing to the efforts of the government and of 
the Zemstvo, and to the timely aid of private 
individuals, wHo contributed more than one 
million roubles in relief, the distressed popu- 
lation, numbering 173,000 inhabitants, has been 
saved from the effects of impending famine. 
Nevertheless, the sacrifices made did not suffice 
to prevent the complete ruin of the inhabitants, 
who have spent all their savings and their 
stocks of cereals. The economic effects of this 
visitation have been such that the rich 
have become poor, and the poor become 
beggars. To add to this distress, signs were 
already apparent in the spring of the 
present year that the harvest would again 
prove a bad one. The drought prevailing 
during the summer effectually destroyed the 
weak growth of both winter and spring sown 
wheat. In one voi6,we find ourselves face to face 
with the consequences of a bad harvest under much 
worse circumstances than last year, when the dis- 
tribution of government loans began only in 
December, while this year such distiibution 
began as early as September. There are several 
thousands of artisans from towns and country 
districts who are not entitled to these loans, 
and the burden of whose support devolves upon 
private charity. To crown all, typhus and epidemics 
among children are appearing. The scene presented 
00 a walk through any part of the district is 



ghastly in the extreme ; a heartrending spec- 
tacle meets one's gazeat every turn. Cold, damp 
huts, with mouldy walls, the snow&lling through 
the apertures of the roof, the thatch having 
been used as fuel, the flooring coated with 
mud ; while on the top of the spacious stove lie 
huddled together five or six individuals in the 
paroxysms of typhus fever, unattended and 
without even bread or miUi. And all this 
with several months of winter weather still 
before us, 

[Prom our St. Petersburg correspondent.] 

U UNGER and misery among the peasantry 
"*-*■ in several provinces (Voronexh, Toula, 
Orel, Kazan, Samara and Bessarabia), are still 
more intense than last year, though the region 
affected is not so large. The whole character 
of the famine is convincing a constantly widen- 
ing circle of peopletbat, without radical reforms, 
without transference of the burden of the taxes 
from the peasants to the better off classes, — 
even the most successful harvests will not 
remove but only postpone the final bankruptcy. 
The government itself begins to understand 
this, but dares not approach the important 
measure of reorganizing the taxation, lor fear 
of stirring up the reactionary noblemen; the 
income-tax question is therefore put off, and 
the government is making poor experiments 
with taxes on houses, which will not patch up 
all the holes in the exchequer. Altogether the 
authorities are in a state of constant fear and 
distrust eveiyone, the result being that all their 
committees for improving the state of things 
in Russia are working languidly, without a 
clearly defined system, and do not know them- 
selves what they have to do, or rather, what 
to undo. 

The government is especially distrustful of 
the zemstvos. In spite of their activity in 
organising the relief last year, the right to 
continue the work has now been taken &om 
them and the government has appointed to the 
task three quite unknown and mexperienced 
generals. 

The press, terrified with the punitive mea- 
sures adopted on the pretext that the papers 
exaggerate facts, is afraid to print anything 
concerning the famine. The public at large, 
not finding in the papers any direct statements 
about the famine, disbelieves it altogether, and 
with its usual apathy concentrates all its energy 
on its private affairs. From this cause public 
charily, which greatly increased during last 
year, has now shrunk almost to a cypher, and 
if anything is done in that direction it is done 
very quietly and stealthOy, in fear of being 
caught and treated as criminals. 

Here is a fact : in Moscow there existed a 
specialist paper, the Juridical Mtttenger, which 
had the reputation of being the best paper of 



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February i, 1893. 



its kind, aod was exempted from preliminary 
censorship. Quite unexpectedly the editor, 
Mr. MouiomtzeV) received a communicatioD 
in which it was said that, by order of the Tzar, 
his paper must be subjected to preliminary 
ceosor^ip. No reasons were given for this 
punishment. The motive can, however, be 
guessed from the following facts. About a year 
ago two senators, Messrs. Artsimovich and Se- 
meonov, wereinviled to appear, in their quality 
of land- owners, in the famine-stricken provinces, 
before the Tzarevich's committee. Artsimovich 
by his evidence put himself into opposition 
to the opinions of the committee, which con- 
sidered the chief cause of the famine to be the 
poor harvest. He tried to prove that the 
causes lie much deeper and are chiefly the 
economic ruin of the peasants, the small allot- 
ments, the heavy taxes and other like defects 
which have arisen from the attitude of the 
government and bureaucracy towards the 
peasantry. These opinions were met with 
vehement protests from the majority of the 
committee, but especially rude was the be- 
haviour of the minister Dournovo,whoexpre5sed 
disbehef in even the truth of the witness's data. 
After the sitting Mr. Artsimovich sent to 
Dournovo a number of the Juridical Metsenger 
containing an article of the well-known statis- 
tician Krasnoperov, on the economic misery of 
the peasantry of the Saratov province ; data 
taken from this article had been used by 
Artsimovich in his evidence. 

This same article of Krasnoperov, a year 
after its publication, became a cause to punish 
the review. And this is why papers dare not 
publish Eacts concerning the famine and gene- 
rally discuss questions of internal policy. 

Take into consideration that there is not a 
single large paper in Russia which has not 
already two warnings on its head, so that one 
single superQuous word which does not agree 
with the government's views at the moment — and 
the paper is doomed. The unbearable situation 
of the press is still further aggravated by the 
fact that warnings are not annulled by amnesty 
or by lapse of time. One Moscow paper, the 
Rusitan GatitU, received its first warning about 
fifteen years ago, and the second one only last 
year, for a mere trifle, only an erratum. Every- 
body knows that the mistake was a pretext for 
the minister of the interior, who wanted to 
punish the paper for printing the first article of 
Count L. Tolstoi, which attracted public 
attention to the famine. 



Reply .TO a Corsesfondent.— Of course the name 
of one of the supposed candidates for the ofHce of 
minister of the m)erior(FREE Russia December iSgz, 
p. 4), has beSn misprinted. The man famone bb a 
"political inqnisitor in 1873-4," could be but 
Znikbarev, the Saratov pmcureur who directed the 

inquiry. We thought such an explanation 1 

for RusBians, and we apologise for the < 



Branch Work* 
II. 

■pXPERIENCE shows that an overwhelming 
■*-' majority ofpeople in this country, however 
ignorant about Russian affairs, and therefore 
sometimes holding the most erroneous views 
and prejudices upon the subject, are quite open 
to reasonable argument and appeals to good 
feeling. The difficulty is to get their ears or 
eyes for a moment's attention in a matter so 
utterly strange and unpopular as the Russian 
internal and international questions. Those 
who form our branches ought therefore to take 
the utmost care and make the greatest efforts 
to bring people into contact with Russian 
matters as much as possible. It is more easy 
to induce people to listen to a speaker, than 
to make people read upon a subject, interest in 
which has not previously been forced upon 
them by meeting interesting people, looking at 
a stirnng picture, hstening to a beautiful, 
melancholy Russian melody, or to a thrilling 
lecture. Yet, if those people who make a 
regular custom of reading were to meet with 
our publications more frequently, we may be 
sure that the truth would become more widely 
spread and our work would get more active 
support from new proselytes. The splendid 
work done in this line by Mr. Herbert M. 
Thompson, of Whitley Batch, Llandaff, Glam., 
is most interesting, edifying, and suggestive of 
imitation. Mr, Thompson printed a short 
circular offering to send Free Russia gratuit- 
ously for a year to any free libraries which 
would care to have it put in their reading- 
rooms in a conspicuous place. He then sent 
out a large number of copies of this circular to 
free libraries and some clubs. Applications 
arrived from about 150 of them. He then paid 
the yearly subscription for that number of 
copies to the funds of our society. Knowing, 
however, how easily a small leaflet gets 
torn and lost, if not especially protected, Mr. 
Thompson presented each of the above- 
mentioned libraries with a card-board case to 
keep Free Russia in. On the inside of the 
case was printed a short bibhography of the 
more widely known books upon Russia, and, 
to make the study of the subject still more 
easy for anyone canng to take it up, a special 
column was provided for the pressmarks under 
which such of these books as the local library 
possessed could be found. We know that in 
some places, in Leeds for example, these marks 
were carefully inscribed by some of the readers. 
We know also that some of the libraries, after 
receiving Free Russia for a time free of charge, 
finally became regular subscribers. 

Certainly the branches should make a point 
of leaving no club, no library, in their locality 
without our publications. 

* For the first articleBMFRBBRussiADececiber,i893 



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25 



This is, however, not the only means of 
enlarging the circulation of our publications 
and of ensuring their being read. Fhee RussrA 
and our pamphlets are sold not only at all the 
lectures arranged by the F.R.F., but even at 
many lectures got up by other societies, insti- 
tutes, or persons, but touching upon Russian 
topics. Such associations and persons never 
object to having our literature sold either at 
the doors or from the platform, and this is quite 
natural. The fact is that after an interesting 
lecture on a Russian subject people are very 
eager to learn something more in the same 
line, and to prevent our cheap publications 
from being sold at the close of the address 
would mean to rob the audience of an opportu- 
nity they eagerly look for. Indeed the Tyneside 
Sunday Lecture Society, last season, after 
having sold several hundred copies of Free 
Russia at F. Volkhovsky's lecture, asked for 
more and carried on the sale next Sunday (to 
the extent of 1,500 copies more) at Sir C. 
Dilke's lecture which was in no way connected 
with Russia. Every year, on the ist of May, 
a number of volunteers among the F.R.F. sell 
thousands of copies of Free Russia and our 
pamphlets in Hyde Park. 

All these examples show that with a little 
enthusiasm and a good deal of perseverance, 
the sale of our hterature by the branches could 
be carried on to great advantage. The branches 
ought to have always in stock bound sets of 
Free Russia, plenty of copies of the last 
number, pamphlets, and other literature, and 
to use every opportunity to sell them. We 
note for example that on the i6th of December 
last. Colonel Browne, Royal Scots Fusiliers, 
Marybill, delivered a lecture in the Ayr Town 
Hall, on " Russia and Great Britain in Central 
Asia." Supposiilg the place had been within 
the reach of a group of Friends of Russian 
Freedom, here was a splendid opportunity to 
push forward the work. Colonel Browne did 
not, it is true, make any distinction between 
official and non-official Russia, between the 
government and the people. He simply took 
the " Russia " that was gradually approaching 
India by swallowing up new territories, as the 
only one existing, and recommended against its 
absorbing policy the only remedy he, as a 
military man, knew, — the increase of British 
troops in Asia. But it would cost only a 
few remarks made by one of the audience after 
the lecture to show that the greediness of the 
Russian imperiahsm is a burden to the Russian 
masses themselves (as the mihtary expenses of 
the empire are exhausting their means), and 
that, therefore, the aggressive policy will change 
at once as soon as a representative and demo- 
cratic government succeeds the present one in 
Russia. If such a debate could not be raised, 
in any case attention could be drawn to the 
most important side <d the question by our 



literature, which, we may be sure, would find 10 
Colonel Browne's audience willing buyers. 
Indeed, not only lectures about Russia, but 
any meetings could be used as opportunity for 
selling our literature at the doors. We know 
that the committees arranging some meeUngs 
will not under any circumstances permit any- 
thing to be sold within the doors. But the 
street belongs to everyone. 

On some occasions free distribution of lite- 
rature leads 10 more effective results than 
selling. Our friends should be told, therefore, 
that the executive committee has passed a 
resolution to the effect that the back numbers 
of Free Russia which are in stock at our 
office (3, IffleyRoad, Hammersmith), are to be 
disposed of free of charge, as specimen copiM. 
Our readers know that the greater part of the 
contents of our periodical is of permanent 
interest, and therefore good reading for those 
who take an interest in the Russian qucstioii. 
Anyone who would care to distribute these back 
numbers among people likely to read them can 
obtain as many copies as they wish by applying 
either to the hon. sec. or simply to Free 
Russia, 3, Iffley Road, Hammersmith, 
London, W. 

We should like to call the special attention 
of our friends to what has just been said about 
the permanent interest of matter contained in 
Free Russia since the paper's first appearance 
in June, 1890. The an-ount of information, 
which cannot be derived from any other source, 
contained in various numbers of the paper, the 
light thrown on Russian life by the combined 
effect of its different articles is such that no 
person who really cares to learn whatever can 
be learned about Russia, no secretary of any 
branch, no active friend of Russian free-lom can 
do without reading the whole ot it, number 
after number. This is made very easy now, as 
complete sets of Free Russia for the years 
1890, i8gi, 1892, are bound in volumes, pro- 
vided with indexes, and sold at a moderate 
price at our office. And we should recommend 
to all our branches to pay special attention to 
this. Apart from the purely political side of 
our paper, we will point to the fact that it was 
the first, and so far, the only one to introduce 
to English readers one of the greatest talents in 
Russian fiction— M. E. Saltykov (Shchednn); 
that its back numbers contain such specimens 
of his genius— a genius as great as that of 
Swift — as "The Fool," "The Deceitful 
Editor," "The two Generals," and "Miaha 
and Vania. " 

The publications of the S.F.R.F. are circu- 
lated, among other things, on the same 
commercial principles as any other publications, 
i.t., they can be entrusted to agents, booksellers, 
newsmen and private persons — on commission, 
for a certain discount. Free Russia has every 
month its post bills printed (with its contents). 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



February i, 1893. 



and these are sent out to all the agents. 
Experience shows that many of the latter 
neglect to use them properly, and do not make 
any effort to push forward the circulation of our 
organ and pamphlets, or to make them known 
to the public. ' Now the branches would do a 
very good service if they would not only secure 
for us good agents in their locality, and organise, 
if possible, a sale in the streets through news- 
boys, but also visit those agents now and then 
and control the whole business of selling in 
their locahty. 

Specialefibrls should be made by thebranches 
and generally by our friends in the provinces 
to get paid advertisements for insertion in 
Free Russia or in new pamphlets. We must 
not overlook the fact that our literature is 
circulating not only in this country but also in 
America, and that, for example, the pamphlet 
" The Flogging of Political Exiles," is now 
printed in its ^urlh edition and seventeenth 
thousand, while "The Slaughter of Political 
Prisoners," after being issued four times, in 
all to the amount of 26,000 copies, is now out of 
print. Thus, our publications are a very good 
medium foradvertiserstoreach the public, and on 
their part it would be no charity but "business" 
to give advertisements. On the other hand 
everyone knows that all the periodicals derive 
their financial stability and prosperity more 
&x>m advertisements than from any other source. 
Look at those published for the support of 
certain principles, the religious, temperance and 
trade papers, they all exist and develop their 
activity on (he financial basis given them by 
paid advertisements. We ought to have 
recourse to the same means so far as it is in 
conformity with our principles, and our friends 
in the provinces should " make a point " of 
getting them for out publications, inasmuch as 
our charges for them are not at all heavy and 
as our advertisement columns show that people 
acknowledge them a good medium. For all 
particulars about this matter people should 
apply to our hon. sec., Mr. W. Mackenzie. 
{To be amlinued.) 



Meetings. 

Executive Committee.— The Executive Com- 
mittee met on January nth, 1893; present: Dr. 
Spence Watson, Mr. Herbert Kix, Mr. E. R. Pease, 
Mr. G. H. Pen-is, Mr. H. M. Thompson, Mr. 
Mackenzie, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Voynich. The 
minuteB of last meeting w«re conRrmed. A letter 
was read from Mrs. Human resigning her member- 
stiip of the Committee on account of her leaving for 
abroad. The meeting accepted the resignation 
with regret, .and instructed the hon. secretary to 
thank her in the name of the Committee for her 
services. Permission was given to bring out a 
German edition of the pamphlet " A journey under 
arrest." The advisability of eHlabUshing a branch 
oi the Society at Leeds waB considered, and it was 



resolved to give every assistance to the friends 
working there in that direction. The hon. treasurer 
reported a debit balance of £11. Other business 
was transacted and the meeting adjourned. 

Bristol.— S. Stepniak lectured in St. James's 
Hall, on January gth, on "The Russian Revolutionary 
Movement," for the Sunday Society. The hall was 
well fiUed. 

BuHNLEv. — Mrs. John Brown and some other 
Friends of Russian Freedom living in Burnley, held 
a private meeting last month, at which it was 
decided to have in that town a lecture on some 
Russian topic on March aand. All willing to help 
in the enterprise should communicate with Mrs. 
Brown, Bank Parade, Burnley, Lancashire. 

Edinburgh.— On January 13th the Edinburgh 
branch of the F.R.F. held their first annual public 
meeting. Ihe reader will find a detailed account of 
in it another place of the present No. 

Leeds.- During the last month several private 
meetings were held in Leeds, by some local active 
supporters of the Russian liberation cause with the 
purpose of making the work there permanent. It 
was decided to hold on February loth, a large public 
meeting in one of the best halls in Leeds. Invitations 
to speakers and others ate already sent out. S. 
Stepniak and F. Vol khovsky have promised to attend 
the meeting. AH willing to help the initiators should 
communicate with Mr. F. Rothstein (not Kotsteiu.as 
was printed by mistake in the January No, of FREE 
Russia) of 13, Lady Lane, Leeds. 

Londoh. — On January 24th, F. Volkhovsky gave a 
personal narrative of his escape from Siberia to 
America, in the large schoolroom of Finsbury Park 
Wesleyan Institute, to an enthusiastic audience. Mr. 
W. Bagley, of Knottingley, Yorks, came from there 
specially to take the chair for the occasion, and Mr. 
James Kent, one of the Vice-Presidents of the 
Institute, was also on the platform. Our literature 
was sold at the doors, and the hon. secretary's annual 
report for 1S93 of the work of the Society and also 
back numbers of Free Russia, as specimen copies, 
were distributed free. 

Newcastle,— Our members and friends know 
already from the Hon. Secretary's annual report 
that a branch of our Society was recently established 
in Newcastle-on-Tyne for that town, Gateshead and 
the surrounding distr ct. The officers to that branch 
were elected at a meeting held on November i6th. 
Miss Mabel Spence Watson being in the chair. All 
present, with one exception, formed themselves into 
a committee with power to add to their numbers. 
It was decided to ask several local ladies and 
gentlemen known to be interested in Russia to join 
the committee. Miss Wallace was appointed Hon. 
Treasurer of the branch and Miss Coulter (13, Bloom- 
field Terrace Gateshead) Hon. Secretary. It was 
resolved to use every means to increase the member- 
ship of the branch and the circulation of Free 

Salford.— S. Stepniak lectured on January 23rd, 
for the Local Lecturing Society on " The Russian 
Political Crisis." The hall was full and the lecture 
lasted about three hours (on account of the 
questions). 

Stratford (Essex.) — On January 22nd, F. Volk- 
hovsky lectured in the Stratford Town Hall for the 
National Sunday League. The subject was "How 
I Escaped from Siberia to Freedom," 7^e audience 
was very good and attentive. Asaleof our literature 
was carried on at the doors. 



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27 



Upper Norwood.— On January 25tb, Mr. Volk- 
hovshy lectured for the U. N. Literary and Scientific 
Society on " The Story of My Life." Mr, Conan 
Doyle presided and spoke both before and after tlie 
lecture, expressing his strongest sympathy with the 
Russian liberation movement. He asked the lecturer 
to enlist him as a member of the S.F.R.F. The 
custom of the U.N.L.S.S.did not allow the sale of any 
ulerature, but many specimen copies of Free 
Russia and of the annua! report were distributed 
free. 



Lecture List. 

The ladies and gentlemen whose names appear in 
the following liat have, with the approval of the 
Executive Committee, consented lo lecture graii% on 
the subjects opposite their names, under the auspices 
of the Societ}^ of Friends of Russian Freedom. 
Clutd, associations, societies and similar institutions, 
or sympathisers with Russian Freedom, desirous of 
securing the services of any of these ladies or gentle- 
men should communicate with the lecturer direct. 
J. C. Swinburne-Hankam, i8a, Goldhurst-terrace, 
South Hampstead, N, W. Subject : " The Present 
State of Russia." 
Mrs. Mallet, Albemarle Clob, Albemarle street, 
Piccadilly, W. (not on Thursday or Friday). 
Single Lecture : " Russia and her People." Thre« 
Lectures: "Russia and Siberia (i) Geography 
and Climate ; " (a) " Early History ; " (3) " Late 
History." " Land System— Present Condition- 
The Mir, the Commune." Three Lectures: 
" Russian Martyrs : " (1) " The Peasants ; " (a) 
" Administrative Exiles ; " (3) " The Stundists." 
A Course of Nine Lectures, devoting iwo to the 
subject of Administrative Exiles. 
W. F. MouLTOH, The Leys School, Cambridge. 

Subject : " Russia To-day and To-morrow." 
E. R. Pease, 376, Strand. W.C. Subjects: "The 
Story of Russian Nihilism." " Eugland's Interest 
in Russian Revolution." 
G. H. Perris, 115, Fleet.strcet, E.C. Subjects: 
" Russia's Place in Modem Europe." " The 
P^rraniuf of the Russian Revolutionary Movement." 

" The Episode of the ' Terror. The Coming 

Crash in Russia." 
Miss Ada Radford, i, South Hill Avenue, Harrow. 
Subjects : " Russian Freedom." " The Russian 
Revolntion." 
H. Roberts, care of Free Russia, 3, Iffley-road, 
Hammersmith, W. Subjects : " The Russian 
Nihilist Movement." " The Russian Peasant and 
bis Future." 
George Standring, 7, Finsbury -street, E.C. Sub- 
ject : " The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
WiLUAH W. Mackenzie, Hon. Sec. 



Meetings for February. 

5. Mr. Volkhovsky (for. the National Sunday 

League), Bermondsey Town Hall, S.E., at 
7 p.m. Subject : " How I escaped from 
Siberia to Freedom." 

6. Mr. Volkhovsky (for the Cloughton Church 

Institute), at Birkenhead. Subject : " In 
Russian Prisons as a Political Suspect." 



g. Mr. Volkhovsky (for the Barrhead Mecbanics 
Institute), Barrbead. near Glasgow. Public 
Hall. Subject ; " The Story of my Life." 
g. S. Stepniak, Walton, near Manchester, on " The 

Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
10. Public meeting in Leeds on behalf of the 
Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 
Speakers to be announced later on. 
12. S. Stepniak, in Manchester, on " Civilisation, 

East and West." 
15. Sergius Stepniak will speak on " Russian Liter- 
ature," at a " Special Gathering of the 
Cemented Bricks" and their friends, at 
AndersoD's Hotel, Fleet Street, London, E.C. 
26. F. Volkhovsky (for the Sunday Lecture Society) 
at St. George's Hall, Langham Place, at 4 
p.m. Subject : " How I Escaped to Freedom." 
38. F. Volkhovsky (for the Mutual Improvement 
Association), Worthing. 
Besides these, public meetings on behalf of the 
Society of Friends of Russian Freedom are likely to 
be held during February In Preston, Plymouth and 
other places. 

The Hon. Secretary of the S.F.R.F. (W. W. 
Mackenzie, 24, RedcUfTe -gardens. South Kensington, 
S.W.), would feel obliged if persons lecturing on 
Russian topics— wbetfier for tne S.F.R.F. or other- 
wise — would kindly tuform him beforehand of the 
place, time and subject ot their lectures for annouoce- 
ment in Free Russia, and also send in accounts of 
them after delivery. 



Bihliogiaphy. 

•Russia under AUxandtr III. and in thf Preceding Period. 
By H. Von Samson-Himmelslierna. Tranmted by 
J. Morrison. Edited by Felix Volkhovsky. T. 
Fisher Unwin, London, 1893. 

THIS is one of the most engrossing hooks upon 
Russia which have been published for a long 
time. One must not took to it, however, for a deep 
and searching study of Russian political life, insti- 
tutions or literature. The book is essentially 
sketchy and personal. But as a series of personal 
characteristics it is the best thing we have upon 
modem Russia. It reads like a novel, and it reveals 
that side of Russian life upon which hardly anything 
has been hitherto written : Russia's intellectual 
development; the working of those interior, invisible 
forces, moulding the minds of the progressive 
minorities, which slowly shape the history of nations, 
no matter what is the form of government under 
which they Uve for the time being. 

The author is quite right in saying that " the 
recent political history of Russia is so intimately 
connected with the literary movement in that country 
that the one cannot be understood apart from tho 
other." The second part of the book, wbich describes 
some of the most conspicuous " party leaders," is 
therefore the most suggestive. The men are intro- 
duced to us with their individual peculiarities, their 
domestic history and their surroundings, all of which 
gives an insight into the lifo of Rus^an literary and 
political circles, and to some extent an idea of the 
mtense intellectual activity which is going oq under 
the apparently stagnant surface. 

But the part of the book which is sure to attract 
most attention and make it vastly popular is that 
which is devoted to the description of the Ratdan 



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Court. The book opeas with a characterisation of 
Alexander III., first as grand duke, then as 
heir apparent, then as Emperor. We are introduced 
next to the Imperial Fainily — all of the grand dukea 
and duchesses who have played any part in politics, 
and to the principal minister holding the reins of the 
state. And 1 hasten to add that on the part of Mr. 
Himmelstierua this is cot pandering to popular 
curiosty about high-placed personages. He has bad 
an exceptional opportunity of observing the Russian 
Court, and what he says about it is fresh and 
original, being evidently taken from life. The 
portrait of the Tzar is the one that is worked out 
most carefully and even artistically. (Free Russia 
gave extracts from it some time ago.) 

It Is, of course, eulogistic, as one may well expect 
from so ardent a monarchist as the author, but it is 
correct in its main lines, and we are spared the 
sickening nonsense of certain journalists who gauge 
kings from a nursery standpoint. Very interesting, 
though not so elaborate, are the characteristics of 
the minor stars of the Russian galaxy^the dukes, 
duchesses, and ministers. 

Having to deal with so many political personagea, 
Mr. Himmelstiema could not help giving some of 
his own poUtical views upon Russia. This is the 
weakest point of the book. The author does not 
know much about the general conditions of the 
country, and blunders upon this subject rather 
frequently. 

The value of the book has been considerably 
enhanced by the careful and laborious notes of the 
editor, who has also supphed to it an excellent and 
comprehensive introduction. 



On SUigh and Horseback lit Outcast Siberian Lepers. 

By Miss Kate Marsdcn. London; The Record 

Press. 

In May, 1890, an English girl. Miss Kate Marsden, 
came to St. Petersburg and sought and obtained an 
audience with the Empress upon a very extra- 
ordinary errand. She wanted to devote herself to 
assisting lepers, those of Siberia in particular. 

There are many formsof philanthropic enthusiasm, 
and the one exhibited by Miss Marsden is certainly 
of the highest, amounting to real heroism. Leprosy 
is the most loathsome of the many mysterious 
ailments which affect the children of men. And it 
is undoubtedly contagious. 

But Miss Marsden braved everything. She went 
to the Siberian lepers ; she visited their stinking 
dens ; she spoke to them ; she distributed relief 
among them. For one moment, which they will not 
forget till the end of their miserable existence, she 
made them feel that they are not wholly outcasts 
from the race. Now she is collecting funds to build 
for them a hospital, or rather a home, for there is 
no cure for the fatal disease. 

Why, it may be asked, should the civilised world 
be worried for the sake of a handful of far away 
savages, when there are so many people in need of 
help at its own threshold ? 

Miss Marsden's answer Is that there is always 
someone to take care of our own unfortunates — at 
least to think about them ; whilst these poor 
creatures are altogether without the pale of human 
sympathy. Hers, in fact, is the frame of mind of 
the kind-hearted Scotch preacher, who would have 
his congregation to " pray for the poor devil, for 
there was no one in the world to pray for him." 

The book which Miss Marsden has brought out 



must not be considered as a piece of literature ; it i 
an instrument to the fulfilment of a mission. But it 
is well worth reading for itself, being a very vivid 
and graphic summary of the experiences of an 
intelligent, observant, and sympathetic traveller, 
whose eyes and heart were keenly alive to the 
manifold suggestions of an extraordinary experience. 

I will note one aspect of her book ; the views she 
occasionally expresses upon Russian genera! con- 
ditions. She went to Siberia with a definite object, 
from whose pursuit she would not permit herself to 
swerve. But she could not help seeing much more 
than she meant to have seen, and she would not 
have made her book thus interesting if she had 
abstained from speaking of experiences outside her 
mission. For instance, she saw the Siberian prisons, 
about whichsomuch has of iatebeen written. She is 
very reticent upon this point, lest she should give 
offence to a government which, to her, was really 
considerate and kind. But she cannot help letting out 
the truth now and then, and to a public distracted 
by the flagrant contradiction between the descrip- 
tions of Mr. George Kennan, on one hand, and Dr. 
Lansdell and Mr. Harry de Windt, on theother,her 
book will be of very great value. Her path, to a 
great extent, was Mr. George Kennan's own, and 
she reluctantly confirms his statements. 

I refer the readers to her account of the Tiumen 
gaol (p. 34); those of Tiukalinsk (p. 24), and Eka. 
terinenburg (p. 49), and especially that of the "black 
holes," called edj/fs (p. 57I : the last containing some 
valuable hints as to the shamefaced lies which the 
official will use to deceive more confident and less 
careful travellers. But I will not dwell on this subject 
in deference to Miss Maisden herself, who a'most 
implores her readers not to use her book as a.point 
d'appui for an attack on the Russian government. 
S. S. 



Misha and Vania : 

A FORGOTTEN STORY, 

From the Russian of Shchedrin (Saltykov). 

(Conclttiei.) 

The reference to his sister cut Misha to the 
quick. He suddenly cowered down as under 
Eome weight : his little pale lace grew as white 
as paper, and fresh tears glittered in his still 
wet eyes. 

" You know she appeared to the mistress," 
Vania went on. 

" It's not true," gasped Misha, in a scarcely 
audible voice. 

" She did ! Yes, really ! Matryona told us 
that she saw the mistress run out of her 
bedroom all white in the bee, like a dead 
woman ! " 

'' It's not true I She's alive I " maintained 
Misha, choking with sobs. 

"No, she isn't then, I know I She's 
drowned; that's as sure as twice two's four! 
What should she appear to the mistress for, if 
she hadn't drowned heiself ? " 

"It's a lie!" It's a He!' shrieked Misha, 
who was just on the verge of a hysterical fit. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



29 



" Why, there you go agaio, you little silly ! 
What's the use of blubbering about it ? Vou 
know we're coining to the same ! " 

Misha relapsed into silence; he was evidently 
thinking over the past. He was calling up in 
his memory how Olia, when she passed him, 
used to pat his cheek and say : " Well, rr.y httle 
rascal I " He remembered how Olia once put 
on him a clean new shirt, and said : " There, 
my Mishoutka, that's for you I " He remem- 
bered how one day Olia had run out into the 
servant's hall, with no colour in her face, and 
with tears streaming from her eyes; he remem- 
bered her voice, entreating for mercy in a 
strangled, agonised shriek : " Oh I little mother, 

Katerina Afanisyevna, don't Ivan Vasilich 

little father!" He remembered how 

Olia's long fair plait fell from under the scissors, 
and how Olia writhed and struggled 

"Don't cut it oh, don't!" suddenly rang 

in Misha's ears the well-known imploring 
voice, so clearly, so distinctly that it suddenly 
forced upon him belief in it. He became in a 
moment convinced that Olia was really dead, 
and that it was she — she in very deed, who 
appeared to the mistress and terrified her 
at night. He even fancied that she was here, 
beside them, this very moment — that she was 
caUing him. 

" Olia is here ! " he said, in a terror-stricken 
voice. 

" That's a story— she isn't," answered Vania, 
shuddering, none the less, and instinctively 
glancing round. 

*' She is. She is, really I " persisted Misha. 

" You're a little booby. I tell you there's 
nobody. And why should she appear to us? 
Don't you know why ghosts come ? They come 
to torment people, and what should she want 
to torment us for ? We never did her any 

harm, and Olia was always kind yes, she 

was a good, kind girl." 

" Olia was kind 1 " Misha re|>e^ted mechani- 
cally, with a loving glance at his companion. 

" Wait a minute, — I'll look round the 
comers," Vania went on, as though with the 
sole desire of soothing Misha ; but it was quite 
evident that he was really anxious to calm his 
own terrors as well. 

He got up and looked first under the table ; 
then went round the room, even feeling in the 
comers ; and finally peeped through the door- 
way into the dark passage outside. No spectre 
was to he found anywhere. 

" There you see, there's nothing ! " he said, 
sitting down again in his former place. 

" Olia was kind ! " Misha repeated dreamily. 

" That's why everybody was so fond of her. 
Do you remember how Stepka took on wheo 
she was lost ? They say Stepka wanted to 
marry her." 

"Was that what he was sent to the police- 
station lor J " 



"That was it Stepka went to the mistress 

and said : ' Katerina Afan&syevna,' says he, 
'you'd best send me to be a soldier,' says he, 
' for I won't serve you any more I ' " 

" Well, I never did I " 

" And the mistress said : ' No, St£pousbka ! ' 
says she — ' I won't send you off for a soldier — 
I'll make you be my shepherd,* till you rot 
away alive! ' And she's done it too." 

" Why wouldn't she let him eo for a 
soldier ? " - 

" Why, because she's a devil, my lad." 

" Is it nice to be a soldier, Vania 7 " 

" How should I know ? Anyway it must be 
better than living here— it's a dog's life here ! " 

Misha once more pondered in silence. He 
wanted to suggest to Vania that it would be 

better to become soldiers than but there he 

checked himself; he was afraid of making 
Vania angry, and also of appearing a coward 
in his eyes, 

"I'll tell you what, Mishoutka," suddenly 
exclaimed Vania. 

" What ? " 

*' Let's go round and lo<rfc at the rooms." 

" For the last time ! " flashed through 
Misha's brain. 

" All right, Vania," he said. 

Vania snuffed the candle and took the lead. 

"The drawing-room," he said, eutering the 
first room. 

" The drawing-room," Misha repeated after 
him. 

" Say good-bye now, on all four sides," said 
Vania, authoritatively. 

Misha bowed to all the four walls, Vania 
going through the same ceremony. 

In like manner they went through all the 
rooms, repeating their farewell salutation 
everywhere. At last they reached the furthest 
room, where stood a large double bed. 

" Damn them ! " said Vania, and oot only 
omitted to bow in all directions, but e^'en spat 
on the floor. 

"IknowwhatI" he exclaimed; "let's havea 
'limmi-na-tion and hght all the place up ! The 
old hag won't be in for a long time yet." 

"Oh yes, we must light up ! " said Misha, 
and a smile of infantine delight flitted over his 
little face. 

It was easy to see that Misha's was a sensi- 
tive, delicate, artistic nature : he loved fresh 
air and brightly- lighted rooms, and moped in 
the dark, stuflfy entrance- hall. It was also easy 
to see that Vania knew of this tendency in 
Misha and was anxious to cheer him up 
somehow. 

They made a really brilliant illumination. 
Misha expressed a wish lo play the part of 
master ot the house, and Vania agreed to be 
the visitor. But guest and host had only just 

* An exceediagly trying and lonely portion in RuMla 



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February i, 1893 



sal down with their feet on the sola, aod the 
host was just making the usual polite inquiry 
as to the visitor's health, when there was a loud 
ring at the outer door. Visitor and host rushed 
at once to put out the candles, but their haste 
only delayed them, and a second ring followed, 
even louder and more impatient than the first. 

At last the candles were extinguished some- 
how, and the children rushed to the door. 
Before he opened it Vania could hear that his 
mistress was pleased to be angry, 

" It's those scoundrdly boys again !" she 
was saying in a furious tone : " I'll give it to 
them in a minute !'" 

" Don't be upset, my dear ! " said Ivan 
Vasilich, persuasively ; " perhaps Nikandr 
Afan&sidi has come on a visit." 
At this moment Vania opened the outer door. 
Is my brother Nikan6r Afan&sich here?" 
was the lady's &rst question. 
"No, ma'm." 

" Who lighted the drawing-room candles?" 
" Nobody, ma'm." 
" You little wretch !" 
A violent blow felled Vania to the ground. 
" Who lighted the drawing-room candles ? " 
she repeated, attacking Misha, who was stand- 
ing still, more dead than alive. 
" N-no-o," he whispered, almost inaudibly. 
" Will you mver leave us in peace ? " cried 
Vania, suddenly, in a wild, unnatural shriek, 
and, springing to his feet, he flew at Katerina 
Afanisyevna, before anyone could interfere, 
tearing hex nose and mouth with his finger 
nails. 

Katerina Afanisyevna half fainted. It was 
no easy task to drag Vania away from her, for 
he had become, as it were, petrified, and had 
grown stiff all over. She was led away into 
her bedroom, Ivan Vasilich remarking as they 
went : " Resily, little mother, you ought to be 
above getting iipset by these clowns." Vania 
wfta carried into the kitchen. He shed no 
tears, but only uttered shriek after shriek : his 
whole nervous system was thoroughly and 
profoundly shaken, and he had lost all control 
over himself, so that these piercing, frantic 
screams were quite mechanical and out of his 
power to prevent. All the servants, frightened 
and distressed, crowded round him, rubbing 
and chafing his limbs. At last the paroxysm 
passed over, and the moment the screams 
stopped, Vania sank into a heavy sleep. 

Whether Katerina Afan&syevna was really 
hurt, or whether the servants told her of the 
condition of firenzy into which Vania had fallen, 
in any case no arrangements were made that 
night for the punishing of the boys. The 
only order given was that they were to be kept 
in the kitchen. Misha lay dowh beside Vania, 
but Cor a long time he could not close his eyes : 
the coming day stood before his over-excited 
imagination, distinct in every detail, and full of 



the most frightful tortures. He saw before him 
heaps of whips and rods, and Katerina 
Afan&syevna, with her face, as it were, on fire, 
and snakes twining about her head, opening 
their jaws and darting out tongues of flame. 
Vania moaned in his sleep now and then, and 
all the servants lay around sleeping heavily. 
Terror laid hold upon Misha 

" Don't cut it off I Oh, don't I " rang in hia 
ears, and his sister's image passed before his 
eyes, as though a living form, not only in the 
old gingham dress she used to wear, but all 
white and transparent, all glittering with a 
wondrous light 

At laitt, about three o'clock, he fell asleep. 

At four Vania waked him. For a long time 
Misha lay looking at Vania with bewildered, 
misty eyes, unable to realize where he was and 
what was happening 

" It's time I " Vania whispered. 

Misha started, but still could not understand. 

" Get up ! " Vania insisted. 

Misha mechanically rose and dressed. The 
two children went out into the porch. The 
shock of the cold air rushing upon them brought 
Misha, to some extent, to his senses. Vania 
had a pair ol scissors in his band ; he hastily 
took off his page's frock, and began cutting it 
to pieces.' 

" Nobody shall have you I " he whispered In 
a brooding, savage way. 

Then he took off his boots, and poked the 
scissors through the upper leathers in several 
places. 

Misha stood looking on, and suddenly a 
passionate longing for life surged up in him. 
He clutched at his throat with both tiny 
hands, writhing and weeping desperately. 

" Cry-baby I Go back and go to sleep again," 
said Vania. 

"No, no," gasped Misha. "No, no, I'll 

come I will I " 

'■What's the use of blubbering? Didn't 
you see last night ?" 

They left the house and climbed over the 
garden railings. There was no one in the 
street, and all the town was wrapped in dead 
stillness. Trezorka, the watch-dog, sprang 
towards them with a friendly whine, but Vania 
shook his fist, and the dog, after wagging his 
tail two or three times, ran back to his kennel. 
The morning was damp and foggy rather than 
cold ; a heavy cloud seemed to hang over the 
streets, as though darkness, solid with sharp, 
needle-like motes, had taken possession of the 
air. Vania, having nothing over his shirt, felt 
cold. 

" I tell you what ! " he remarked ; — " I was 
a duffer to cut up my frock." 

Misha made no answer ; altogether he aoted, 
as it were, passively. Life seemed to burn 
and burn within him, like a hot stream, 
struggling vainly to free and assert itself. 



vCooqIc 



February i, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



Presently they came to the hollow where 
they had agreed to carry out their project. 
Vania had chosen it as a spot where no one 
would be likely to interrupt them or to find 
them soon. 

Vantaclimbed down into thehoUow and walked 
on in front; his courage had not forsaken him, 
but none the less the sweet, persuasive voice of 
life cried aloud in liim too, and though he 
laughed, an intolerable longing uwelled and 
raged in his heart. He walked en, sharpening 
the knives one against the other, but the sound 
they made seemed to him harsh and dismal ; 
he felt, as it were, all on fire within, and yet his 
thin, starved body shrank and shivered uuder 

the raw, damp cold Misha followed him, 

still in a kind of dull stupor 

At daybreak the watchman, quietly asleep in 
his box, was aroused by some peasants. Passing 
by the hollow they had heard moans, to which 
they respectfully called the attention of the 
guardian of the public peace. 

" Help ! Help ! Oh, help ! " suddenly rang 
through the air as they spoke. 



The men descended into the hollow, where 
they found the two children, one in his page's 
frock, the other in his shirt. Vania was quite 
dead, but Misha still breathed. Hehad drawn 
the knife several times across his throat, but 
timidly and feebly, with a shaking, unsteady 
hand. 

The longing for life had conquered at the last. 



For want of space the promised article 
upon the trial of the spy and " provocator " 
Hendigery, and that upon the persecution of 
the Stundists are postponed till next number. 

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Fnrthep List of SabsoriptlonB of 2a. Sd. and apwards.— f/i chronological order.) 



PcrF. Volkhovsty: 

I. Clark, Edinburgh ... 

CollectioD , Miss Simpton'i 
address, Haddington... 
From E. Holden. pet F. 
Volkhovsky : 

Miss While, Hvde Park 

Mr. S.T. While 

Miss E. White 

F. M. W 

A Friend 

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Park ... 

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Earl oft) 

Cameth Read, Xotling Hilt 
Joseph Turner, Manchester 
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Miss Southall. Edgbaston 
Wm. Simpson, Leicester... 
Miss Prideaux, S. Devon... 
Mrs. Harv^. Ireland 
Miss H. L. Harvey. Ireland 

tP. Wills, M.D.. Sussex 
mily F, Jones, Tunbridee 
Wells r.. 



10 



Mia. B. Atkinson, London... t 

Mrs. S. Smithson, York ... ( 
Mrs. J. Bamett, Wdker- 

on-fyne ( 

Hugh Konalds. Hereford,., ( 
Per G. Davidson : 

F. Volkhovsky's Lecture 
Hawick ! 

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Per W, W. Mackenzie ; 

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A Friend ! 

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]. S. Trotter, London ... 1 
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Miss 8. L^wanwick, Man- 
Mr*. Fellows. London ,.. ( 
Mrs. W. D. Hertz, London ( 
Miss G.Thompson, London 1 
F. Moscheles and friend ... 1 



Dr. & Mra. Spence Watson, 

Gateshead -on-Tyne ... 21 

J. P. Hopps. London ... a 6 
Miss C. E. Williams, 

London U 6 

D. A, Watt, Canada ... 8 

T.Windsor, Manchester. ,. 10 

kR.CIapperlon, Edinburgh 6 

. Ford Smith. I.ondon ... 1 I 

Mrs.L.G.Amslionf.Swray 9 t V 

MisiE M. Eltis, Bristol... 6 

Miss Burton, Gateshead.., 6 

R. Thicknesse, London .., 10 

Miss L.Brady,Soulhampton 10 

MissH.Strel((m.Rlchmond 6 S 

T. S. Tregellis. Cardiff ... 6 

L. Katscher, Austria ... 3 2 

Miss E. C. Graca, Bristol 4 ' O- 

Mrs. J H. Clarke, London 5 

Miss D. Webb. Dublin ... 6 
H. R. S. Dalton, St. Leon- 

ards-on-Sea 6 

T. M. lefTerys. Darlington 6 

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PsrW. W. M(»J<enrfe: 

Mrs. Lee, Leicester ... 2 6 

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W. Mackenzie, London 10 

Mn. G. H. Bailey, Oldham 10 

For Stundists' Fund : 

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CoUeclionat Annual Meeting 8 16 10 

Literature sold ,. .,032 



%• EaaATtiM : D«c«mber No., Rev. G. M- Lester, for 6a. read lOs, 



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FREE RUSSIA. February i, 1893. 



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China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
progress have accepted with glad acclaim 

VENOYA "i TEA 

which combines the strength of Indian Tea with the flavour of Ceylon 
Tea and compared with which the Teas of old are as water unto wine 
or as the rushlight's glimmer to the electric glow. 

Women of light and leading everywhere appreciate a cup of good Tea. 

Let those who have not yet done so 
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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOMI 

The English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, Ebimded in April, 1890, has for it objects to aid, to 
the extent of ita powers, the Russian patriots who are trying to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Weatem nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeal to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creed, who cannot uritneas with indifiereoce the honors perpetrated in the Empire of theT^ars, 
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J. a Trotter. 
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FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1893. 



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June I, 189^. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



83 



CONTENTS. 

G. Kennan t« London. — The Censorship in Finland. 
— The American Tnaty. — Russian Chronicle. — 
Death of Two Refugees in Paris.— Nolrs and 
Meetings. — Bibliegraphji. — The History of Elisey 
Sukach, by G. Laiarev (continued). 

London, June ist, i?93. 

lA^E have for our readers very good news : Mr. 
" ' George Kennan has arrived in this country 
to arrange for a lecturing tour next season. For 
all those who have been in any way toucheJ by 
the great wave of sympathy for [he Russian 
cause it will surely be a great, we might say a 
unique, pleasure to welcome a man who has 
given them so many high and noble emotions, 
and who, almost single-handed, has wrought a 
revolution in the ideas and views of the English- 
speaking world as regards Russian aftairs. 

As to us who are moreimmediateW connected 
with the practical side of the pro-Rus<ian agi- 
tation, we have been looking forward to this visit 
as an event which is sure to have a lasting and 
beneficial effect upon the work we are carrying 
on here, and, indeed, will probably give it a 
new aspect. 

There is nothing so powerful, so fascinating 
and so interesting as an individuality. Books 
and articles may be all very well ; but nothing 
can equal the effect of a personal address when 
the speaker has the rare and enviable gift of 
throwing into his speech his individuality : the 
fire of his conviction, the spell of his sincerity 
and the spontaneous sympathy which carries 
away audiences. 

The Century articles of Mr. Kennan and, later 
on, his book, liave had as much influence upon 
the minds of his contemporaries as anything 
that has been penned by any man. But it has 
been by his lectures that he has fanned to fever- 
heat American sympathy and indignation and 
has educated his fellow-countrymen to better 
sentiments and belter understanding of the 
Russian rebels. 

At the present juncture, with the extradition 
treaty before us, we cannot help remembering 
that all his splendid efforts have not succeeded 
in affecting the government clique in America 
— the professional politicians. But we need 
neither wonder nor be discouraged at that. 
This class of people is not liable to be influenced 
either by reason or by sentiment. The attitude 
taken by the American people with regard to 
the treaty shows that Mr. George KenDan*s 
work has been fruitful indeed. 

For many years we have looked forward to 
Mr. Kennan's visit to England, being fully 
persuaded that, as a lecturer, he will stir the 
people of this country as profoundly as he has 
stirred his fellow-countrymen on the other side 
of the Atlantic, and we rejoice that this expec- 
tation is on the point of being realised. 



pUBLiC opinion is a force which grows 
•^ motu proprio with the growth of general 
education. It is gaining strength even in 
Russia, notwithstanding political despotism. 
It asserted itself during the last famine, and 
recently the government thought fit to make a 
concession to it by granting the permission to 
discuss and comment upon the measures which 
were about to be brought before the state 
council. But very soon it appeared that by the 
freedom to comment the government under- 
stood the freedom to praise. Any unfavourable 
criticism was resented and visited by adminis- 
trative reprimands and punishments. The press 
of Finland took the permission to comment and 
discuss in good earnest, and here is the official 
statement which has just been received from 
the Governor of Finland by the department of 
the censorship for that country: — 
. " The periodical press of Finland has lately 
contained objectionable articles, in which, in 
connection with criticisms of individuals, the 
autocratic power and the Orthodox faith are 
touched upon." . . . After a few severe 
remaiks upon the "laxness" of the Finnish 
censorship, the communication ends as follows: 
— " At the present moment 1 will say no more, 
but I consider it necessary to warn the chief 
department that, in case of the censors or the 
editors of newspapers permitting in future any 
laxity in this respect, I shall be constrained to 
apply to the guilty persons the punitive powers 
entrusted to me by imperial authority. The 
editors of all papers must be informsd of this 
warnhig." 



W- 



ITH regard to the extradition treaty, Mr. 
George Kennan says; — "The feehng 
against the treaty seems 10 be very strong 
throughout the country, and I think we 
shall be able to get a bill or a joint resolution 
through both Houses of Congress next fall, 
directing the President to take such action 
as may be necessary to have it abrogated. 
At any rate that is wiiat we shall try to do. It 
never could have been ratified by the Senate in 
the first place if we had had any intimation that it 
was under ccnsideration. Unfortunately it is 
the invariable practice in our country to discuss 
foreign treaties in what is called 'executive 
sessions,' that is, in secret, and nobody knew 
that this one had been revived until we were 
suddenly informed that it had been ratified." 

These words sum up the situation. The 
Americans as a nation are only legally respon- 
sible for the passing of the treaty. But morally 
they are not responsible. The passing of this 
obnoxious treaty was a trick played upon them 
as well upon the hbeity-loving Russians. 

Now, as the American people are the rulers 
in the land, we may feel confident that before 
long they will get their will recognised and 



, Coogle 



84 



FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1S93. 



registered by their politicians. In the mean- 
while we have to briefly record the most salient 
manifestations of American sentiment in this 
matter. Quite an ant i- extradition literature 
has been created within a few weeks, numbering 
among its authors men of such eminence as 
W. M. Sadler, Dr. Felix Adler and George 
Kennan. Great andrepresentativemeetingshave 
been held in all the principal cities of the union ; 
New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, 
Buffalo, Milwaukee and Others. 

The Chicago meeting, which may serve as a 
sample, is described by the Chicago Tima in the 
following terms : 

Could the " American house of lords" have heard 
the censure — even execration — heaped upon it 
yesterday afternoon, at the Central Music Hall, it 
would bt! a long time before it ratified another 
e^itradition treaty. Prominent and eloquent speakers 
called the extradition treaty with Russia, recently 
ratified by the United States senate, "a compact 
with the devil," " an agreement to turn every United 
States official into a slave catcher for the Tzar of all 
the Russias," "a repetition of the inbmous fugitive 
slave law of 1851." In tones trembling with indig- 
nation oratois pledged themselves to resist by force, 
if necessary, the eoforcement of the treaty. All the 
while an audience of earnest men and women, who 
filled the ball from stage to gallery, applauded to 
the echo. In fact, it was one of the most enthusi- 
astic crowds ever assembled within the walls of the 
Central Music Hall." 

The echoes that reach us from all the other 
places are the same. And there is no counter- 
demonstration, no manifestation in support of 
the unfortunate resolution of the Senate. 

In the face of such a demonstration one can 
safely affirm that the treaty, even if it be 
finally passed, will never have any practical 
application- The Russian government will 
never dare to apply for the extradition of 
political offenders, The treaty is obnoxious on 
account of its moral effect as a solemn recogni- 
tion, on the part of the Americans, of the 
outrageous claims of Russian autocracy. There 
is every reason to hope that before very long 
Mr. Kennan's expectations will be realised, and 
that public opinion will force the government 
to drop the treaty. But if this be not realised 
in the immediate future, the next best thing 
would be, we repeat it, lo obtain from the State 
itgislatures separate votes of censMre, suck as have been 
passtd by the assemblies of Nev York and Ohio, 
pubiishtd in our last issue. 



fTlHE Russification policy is in full swing. 
■*- The closing of those schools in which the 
native language of the oppressed races is in 
use ; the imprisoning of Catholic priests for the 
crime of teaching the history of Poland to their 
pupils without using the text-books specially 
manufactured " for the Poles" in St- Pelersbui^ ; 
thecriminal prosecution of Jewish schoolmasters 
for teaching children without the permission 
of the authorities, and of parents for sending 



their children to be taught ; the compelling of 
Stundists to give up their children to be edu 
cated in the Orthodox Church ; — all these are 
characteristic features of this crusade. The 
government is introducing the Russian language 
into the schools of Poland, Lithuania and the 
Baltic provinces, and forbids the use in those 
schools of the native languages of the races for 
whom, as it would seem, the schools exist. A 
subsidised reactionary paper, the Kiev WorA, 
edited by a professor of the Kiev University, Mr. 
Antonovich (the economist, not the historian), 
considers that it would be a good Ihiog (in order 
to keep the borders of the empire in a proper 
state of submission to the centre] to transfer all 
their higher educational institutions to Central 
Russia. That is to say : The Universities of 
Warsaw and Dorpat and the Polytechnicum 
of Riga should be removed to Tula, Kaluga or 
Riazan — assuredly a wondrously bold flight ol 
truly statesmanlike thought. 



QTRIKES are strictly prohibited in Russia, 
^ constituting a criminal offence, for which 
men are liable to exile and worse. Yet there is 
a very interesting and general strike now going 
on in all those Russian towns to which the right 
of the so-called municipal self-government has 
been extended. In 1870 the two capitals of the 
empire were granted the privilege (afterwards 
extended to other cities) of electing municipal 
councils to manage public works, superin- 
tend primary education, public sanitation, &c. 
This municipal right, never extensive, has 
recently been curtailed in such a way as to 
make the municipal council entirely dependent 
upon the administration. Having no other 
means of protest, the Russians have started a 
sort of strUce, refusing to take any part in the 
comedy of this ^ham self-government. We can 
observe the results of the new "edicts for towns" 
as shown in a whole series of municipal elections 
which have taken place lately throughout the 
whole of Russia. These results speak for them- 
selves ; they are astonishingly similar from Perm 
to Tiflis, and from Finland to the far east. We 
give a few of the figures. It is true that the 
new edict has greatly diminished the number of 
persons having the right to vote ; but of this 
diminished number many chose to take no part 
in the balloting. In Kaluga, instead of the 
former 3,000, only 436 persons voted. In Tiflis, 
Batum and Poti the number of votes was less 
than half of the former figure ; in Kutais and 
Erivan it was one-quarter; in Baku the number 
of votes was actually one-fortieth of what 
it was before. In St. Petersburg, out of 
6,000 voters only 1,167 appeared ; in Kharkov, 
out of 1,813, 475 appeared ; in Odessa less than 
joo persons took part in the election, and so 00. 
Almost everywhere the number of candidates 
elected was much smaller than that stated in 



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June I, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



85 



the edict. In Odessa, for instance, instead of 
75 candidates, not more than 38 were chosen. 
In Kherson the entire staff of the former muni- 
cipal council refused to vote. In Rostov- 
on-the-Don and Taganrog the number of candi- 
dates elected diminished by 76; in Nizhny 
Novgorod, instead of 60 candidates, only 37 
were elected ; in Saratov, 58 instead of 80 ; in 
Nikolaev not more than 29 persons were elected 
in all ; in Moscow, 140 instead of 160, etc. In 
commenting upon these facts, almost the whole 
of the Russian Liberal press attributes them to 
the curtailment by the new "reformed" edict 
of what measure of independence the municipal 
council possessed under the old edict. " Feeling 
themselves," says the Neditlia, " to be less the 
owners of their towns than formerly, the inhab- 
itants hold themselves aloof from municipal 
affairs, as from matters no longer concerning 
them." 



Death of Two Refugees 
in Paris. 

THE Polish and Russian colony in Paris has lost, 
within a short time, two members— Savitzky 
and Heiman — who deserve more extensive notice 
than space allows us to give to them. 

Savit/ky was one of the most gifted and promising 
membera of the PoUsh Socialist party, into which he 
enlisted at the age of 18. For the crime of "personal 
acquaintance" with a prominent revolutionist, L. 
Vaiinsky, he was exiled for four years to Siberia, 
after which he went, to complete his studies, to Paris. 
In a very short time he became one of the most 

Eroficient students of Professor Faratweuf, whose 
itter, read at his funeral, shows that the famous 
scholar had learned to appreciate both the mental 
gifts and the moral qualities of his pupil. 

Savitzky was cordially loved and respected by his 
compatriots as well as by the Russians, among whom 
he had many intimate Irieods. He was full of hope 
and energy ; he was in the flowering time of lite. 
And yet he cut with his own band the thread of that 
life, because, after having undertaken the un^ateful 
task of exposing a traitor, whom others were inclined 
to let alone, he was publicly insulted by him. A sensi- 
tiveness, before which one stands amazed and 
perplexed, unable to unravel the mystery and subtle 
psychology of this terrible self-immolation, yet 
wondering and respectful. The sense of honour is 
a high and noble one, even in its exaggerations. 
The loss of such a man becomes the more painful 
the more one thinks of it. Savitzky's Russian friends 
have just issued an excellent pamphlet, relating his 
biography, giving some sahent traits of his character, 
and recordmg in detail the tragedy of his death. 
The touching figure of this chivalrous young man 
will be long remembered among his fellow -workers 
in the struggle, and may teach them that over, 
indulgence m matters of treason is sometimes the 



typical of the Uves of those Russians who dare to 
meddle with politics. Arrested in Rostov (on the 
river Don) when only a lad of 17, on the charge of 
having harboured a poUtical fugitive and having 



been in correspondence and personal relations with 
some members of a section of the " Narodnaya Volia" 
(" People's Will") party, a clandestine organisation, 
he was originally sentenced ("by administrative 
order") to exile to a northern part of European 
Russia (province of Vologda). But just at that time 
the imperial order for confining political exiles of 
Jewish extraction to the province of Yakutsk was 
issued, and Heiman became one of its first victims, 
being sent to that wild part oE North-east Siberia. 
When the persecution of the " politicals" of Yakutsk 
began under vice-General Ostashkin, and it become 
evident that some tragedy was imminent, Heiman 
came to the town from the country for the sole pur. 
pose of sharing their fate. Before his eyes women 
were bayooetted and a dying man was hanged. The 
sentence passed on him on this occasion comprised 
imprisonment for a certain term and then exile still 
further north— to Verkhoyinsk. At last, after seven 
consecutive years of either imprisonment or exile, 
he was allowed to return to European Rusua ; but no 
sooner had he returned than a new charge awaited 
him, of approximately the same character as the 
former one. This time he succeeded in getting across 
the frontier before he was arrested, and came to 
Paris. But he carried from his prison the germs of 
consumption. The medical authorities who treated 
him. unanimously declared that his disease took a 
fatal course simply because of the exhaustion of the 
organism, caused by imprisonment and exile life. 



Notes. 

AT the Hyde Park May-Day Demonstration, 
at which some of the memlwrs of the Frfe 
Russia staff are regularly invited to speak, the 
managers organised a sale of the paper and 
pamphlets of the Society as well as of the 
Russian literature published by the Russian 
Free Press Fund. Instigated by Russian spies, 
some roughs made an attack upon the stand, 
destroying a considerable quantity of literature, 
making off with a part of the money obtained 
from the sale (30s.) and maltreating the sellers, 
among whom were two women. One of them, 
a girl of 18, was handled so roughly that she 
had to be taken to an ambulance. 

On being informed of the occurrence, two 
of the M.P.'s on our committee, Messrs. 
Allanson Ficton and Byles took the matter up. 
Mr. Byles wrote a letter to the Daily News and 
Mr. Ficton put to the Home Secretary a question 
in the House of Commons, calling his attention 
to the negligence of the police in maintaining 
order. Mr. Asquith,' who was informed of the 
matter beforehand, and had made inquiries of 
the police, replied that he was informed that n<j 
such disorder took place on May 7th in Hyde 
Park, no persons were maltreated, no young 
girl was hurt and no ambulance was called into 
requisition. But several witnesses saw the 
scattered remnants of literature on the ground, 
and the name and address of the girl. Miss E, 
Dover, was taken down in the ambulance, 
where several persons saw her. The affair is 
now in the bands of the Personal Rights 



>8'e 



FREE RUSSIA. 



June I, 1893. 



Association, and, we hope, will soon be brought 
to a satisfactory conclusion, 
• * 
We have received the following particulars 
about the stopping of the imperial train upon 
the Kursk Kharkov line : — The crowd of peas- 
ants was so large that the soldiers stationed 
along the line could not repel them, although 
they used both bayonets and lifles. A reinforce- 
ment of Cossacks, which was sent in ha?te from 
the nearest post, refused to charge against the 
peasants, and this decided their victory. They 
took possession of the line, removed the rails 
so as to make the progress of the train impossi- 
ble, and when the Tzar was bound to stop ihey 
laid before him their various complaints against 
the governor of the province of Ekaterinoslav, 
General Shlippe. 



Meetings. 

ExBcuTlvB Comm:ttbe.— At ameetingoftheEnecuiive 
Commitlee. held aa 3rd May, (be Rev. Professor Shultle- 
worth was e'ected a member of the General Committee, 
Mrs, Webb's tesignatiOD, as a memt>er of the Executive 
Committee, was accepted with legret. 

Plvuouth Branch. — Attemps have been made from 
time to time to introduce into the local press articles 
bearing on Kussian subjects, with various success. In 
accordance with a resolntion passed when first the branch 
was formed, steps were taken by the officers to arrange a 
meeting for working men. which finally came off on May 
19th. in a roam lent by the Gas Workers' Uniun for the 
purpose. The proceeds of the collection and profits on 
sale of literature almost exactly balancoj the expenses 
incurred in advertising. 

A lecture waa given for the S.F.R.F. by Miss Ada 
Radford, in Plymouth, in May. There waa a good 
attendance. Miss Radford gave an accotmt of the 
experiences of Russian exilea, aAd of religious atid political 
persecation in Russia. She touched upon the censorship, 
the corruption of the officials and other grievances of 
Russia, and explained the aints and character of the 
S,F.R.F. 



Bibliography . 

Tht Economici of ike Russian Village, by S. A. 
HuRvicH, Pb.D., Columbia College, New York. 
The Russian rural statistics are unique of their kind, 
for they present the summing up of most detailed 
researches made by hundreds of men, devoted to their 
work, who have gone from house to house, taking 
down every particular as to the economic conditions 
of each peasant family. 

Mr, Hurvich's book is the reflection of these 
investigations, and partakes both of their merits and 
of their defects. It is a painstaking, conscientious 
work, which will be of great value to the students of 
modem Russian life. One may coll it a histology 
of rural Russia. But it will hardly be of use to the 
general reader. 

Poland, by W. R. Mohfill, M.A.— T. Fisher 
Unwin, 1893. 

Like all Mr. MorfiU's works, the present volume 
gives, iu a light, readable form, an excellent and 
perfecUy reliable summing up of the external events 
of the political history of the kingdom, both in the 



time of its greatness and independence and m the 
period of its subjection to the Muscovite rule. A 
Mthful record is given of the Polish political consti- 
tution and the changes it underwent in the courae 
of time ; but one gets no glimpse of the life of the 
people who had to pass through all these changes. 
The book is beautifully illustrated and has an 
appendix upon the history of Polish literature, on 
which Mr. Morfill is, perhaps, the greatest authority 
among non-Slavoni' scholars. 

Sguire Hellman and Other Storks, by JuHANi Aho.— 
T. Fisher Unwin's Pseudonym Library. 

These are Finnish peasant stories, by an author 
who in himself is a study— a former ploughboy who 
has become the first novelist of hia country. The 
sketches are remarkable for their simplicity, truth- 
fulness and freshness, and, for one who is famdiar 
with the types of Russian rural life, they have an 
additional and unexpected interest, showing the 
universality of certain types, which the Russians are 
used to consider their own. Squire Hellman, with 
his coarseness, overbearingness and cowardice, orught 
stand for a fuU-blown Russian kulak. The story is 
full of interesting traits of local life. 
The Revisor, by N. V. Gogol, translated by Syke.— 
Walter Scott. 

N. V. Gogol is the greatest of Russian prose 
writers, greater even than Tui^enev and Tolstoi, 
and "The Revisor" is, perhaps, the greatest of all 
bis works. The Russian theatre has no other 
comedy which is equal to this one. This is an 
opinion which in Russia is no longer regarded as 
open to discussion. But we are not sure whether 
such will be the verdict of the EngUsh. There are 
works which are so eminently national as to be 
often a blank to foreigners. Anyhow, the lovers of 



appeared so well fitted with their English dress. 
Russian Subjects in May Magaeihes. 

The magazines this mouth show us that Engli^ 
interest in Russian subjects increases with the grow- 
ing facilities of obtaining information about them. 
Our First Ambassadors to Russia. 

In the most interesting article in Afacmitlan's, 
Julian Corbett tells us something of the beginnings 
of our intercourse with Russia. This article throws 
more light on the characters of the English ambas- 
sadors to Russia in Elizabeth's reign than on the 
court and courtiers of Ivan the Terrible. But we 
learn that the beginning of our negotiations with 
Russia was the result of an attempt to find the 
Dorth-east passage to Cathay. The nistory of our 
negotiations at this time is the history of concessions 
made by Ivan and of the monopoly granted to the 
Muscovy Company, which finally broke up the trade 
monopoly of the Hansa. Elizabeth's ambassadors, 
we find, were placed in positions of danger and 
difficulty by her characteristic policy of alternating 
haughtiness and concession. But she was so far 
helped by the diplomatic powers of Jenkinson and 
the bullying powess of Sir Jerome Bowes that 
cordial relations were established between the two 
courts, which lasted unbroken for 300 years It was 
proposed that the tricentenary ol this friendship 
should be celebrated. Mr. Corbett points out that 
it was celebrated by the Crimean war. 

The Russian Occupation of India. 

Captain Younghusband's article in the NinetttnOt 
Century purports to be a memorandum vrrltlen by 



.lOogle 



June I, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



87 



a Russian officer Ibr the informatioD of his own 
government. It is occupied entirely with the means 
of occupyiog Afghanistan as a step towards the final 
occupa.tion of India. 

The Memoirs of a Femalt Nihilist, by Sophit Vassiliev, 
Mrs. Mona Caird writes an introduction to the 
" Memoirs of a Female Nihilist " in the IdUr. She 
has shown us before powerfully enoueb the influence 
on the characters of women 01 the false ideal of self- 
sacrifice for its own sake. This makes her a fitting 
person to introduce to us a character whose sel^ 
sacrifice is the inevitable outcome of devotion to a 
cause — the cause of the Russian people. Of the 
memoirs themselves, one number only being pub- 
lished, it is early to speak. 



The History of Elisey 

Sukach, the Stundist. 

n. 

Next Bandfty all the villagerB, old and yonng, 
went to ohoroh. Sakaoh'a wife, Uarya, went 
with the rest, to offer a candle to St. Nicholas 
the miracle-worker, in gratitude for her husband's 
aonveraion to the right way. Sukaoh went too, 
bat with an nnquiet heart. 

The priest had been waiting for him some 
time ; he oould not get on without 8nkach ; the 
censer fire was not lit, the candles were not 
placed, — nothing was ready, 

Sakiwk came forward; h« listened in silence 
to the priest's stern reproof, and then, with a 
practised hand, set about his nsnal duties. He 
ughted the candles, kindled the oeuser fire and 
sprinkled in the inoease ; and all the while a 
secret voice seem to whisper to him : " What 
for ? " He could not refuse to fulfil hia custom- 
ary duties during the service, for that would have 
been to declare war against the orthordox charoh, 
oonfeas his new faith and enter at once npan a 
struggle against ancient routine, prejudice and 
ignorance, and, moreover, against all the power 
of the Bussian police despotism. To do this was 
beyond his strength ; he was not yet prepared for 
such a straggle. He kissed the priest's hand 
when giving him the censer ; but be did it with a 
sense of disgust. He no longer moved proudly 
about the church, as he used to do, watolung the 
people draw aside tc let him pass ; he stood still 
unless absolutely obliged to move. That persis- 
tent question : " What is it all for ? " would give 
him DO peace. When tbe congregation left the 
ohnich, ne did not go to ring the chimes, and the 
bells, ruDg by some nnpractised band, jangled and 
clashed, as though they would harmonise with 
EUsey's disquiet thoughts. He listened in gloomy 
abstraction to tbe dissonance of their brazen 
tongues. " What use is it all ?" be murmored 
involuntarily. 

" What's the matter, Elisey, are yoa ill ? " 
asked tbe priest ; and several of the neighbours 
remarked compassionately that be " looked like 
« ghost. ' 



"A man may leave even the service of Uod's 
house when he's ill ; there's no sin in that." 
Elisey answered not a word. 

He grew stranger with every day. He worked 
from morning till night about the house and yard ; 
he mended the harness, carried out the manure, 
swept the yard and repaired the fence. He even 
engagedhimselfforaweek, with bishorse, to plough 
for a neighbouring fsrmer. Then he went to the 
bazaar and bought soma glass, which he put into 
the broken windows. The neighbours looked at 
bim in amazement. 

" EUsey's come to his senses" they said. 
" That's a long sight better than n^leoting his 
children to faddle ^er the priest." 

The shiftless, rained "Elisey the paalm-stngeri" 
whom, for all the preoedenoe given to him in 
church, the neighbours bad openly despised, now 
began to gain in their opinion when they saw 
that he oould take thought for hia household, his 
wife and bis children. They gave him friendly 
help in building a new winter shed for his cattle, 
lent him their horses to bring in poles and 
branches, and gave him straw for the roof, 

"EUsey's wrong in one thing though, mates," 
remarked one of the neighbours ; — " he's qnarrelled 
with the priest and left off working for him 
altogether ; that's quite right, I always told him 
so. But why has he given np going to 
church ? " 

And, indeed, Elisey had quite left off going to 
church. As soon as the people started for ohnrch 
on Sunday mornings, he would go to the cottage 
of his fellow- believer, Origory, and the two woald 
sit in the barn together and talk over their 
doubts and di£Boalties. 

Should they declare themselves Stundists ? It 
seemed a fearful risk ; the mass of the people are 
still so ignorant, so superstitions ; indeed, the two 
converts knew fivm their own past how powerful 
prejudices are. If they were to confess their 
faith publicly, their life would be made anbear- 
able to them by everyone, especially as the priest 
would encourage the people to persecute them. 
For that matter, the priest bad met Elisey in the 
rood and had flown at him with abuse and 
threats : " Have yon forgotten Ood ; that yon do 
not come to church ? Anybody would think that 
Tpu had gone over to the accursed Btundiat 
heresy I Do you want to be hanged, you and 
Riaboshapka on tbe same gaUows, eh 7 " 

The two friends thought of the words that 
Biaixishapka had quoted : "Where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there will I 
be among yon," and tbey remembered bow tbe 
preacher had told them that this was the true 
chnrch. And here were they a " church " of 
themselves. They decided not to confess their 
faith publicly nntil, at least, they hnd prepared 



their \ 



\To he cMlittued.) 



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June I, 1893. 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

Farther Iilst of SubsoripticDB of 2s. ed. and upwards.— f/x chroito'ogual order.) 



Min Wbitehead. London 10 

Mr*. C. Terapletoo. Leeds 6 

Miss Simpson, Haddinf^on G 
rerDr, Rubinslein, Afnca : 

T. Kouslov 10 

Anonymaus 1 

A. Klein 7 

C. Zeffertt 10 < 

L. Olswang < 

B. M. Ries 6 i 

George Patrar ... ... S I 

Llnsliy, Bros. 6 < 

W. H. Craven 6 ( 

S, Marks 1 ( 



Mr. & Mrs. Rivers, London Q 10 

Miss M. Ellis. Lacester... 5 
PerW. W.Mackenzie: 

Hiss F. Franks, London 6 

Mrs. Slroyan, Bumley... 2 6 

T. W. Goddard, Leicester 6 

Mra, Melcair, London ...0 6 

Miss S. L, M. Tait 110 

Miss B. Walter, London... 6 

Mrs B.Saundeison.Oxrord I 1 

Anonymous, Cambridge ... 8 8 

Mrs. Sidgwick, Oxford ...0 6 
Per W.W- Mackenzie: 

Hon. Mrs. G, Coleridge 110 



Rev, Stopford Brooke ... 

Tbos. I.aurie, London ... i 

Mrs. A. Sidgwick ((or 30 

subscribera of Oxford 

branch) 

Per J. Billson, Leicester : 
Mrs. S. W. GimsoD ... i 

S, A. Ginison 

A. 1. Gimson 

J. M. GinisoD 
ames Ellis 

I'er H. M. Thompson: 
C. Templelon, Leeds ... ( 
J. Spiridion. Cardiff ... I 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 



WHY DOES RUSSIA LAG BEHIND 

in the March of Humanity to Freedom ? Is it not perhaps because being 
a nation of Tea Drinkers she still clings to the sapless and strengthless 
China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
progress have accepted with glad acclaim 

VENOYA ™- TEA 

which combines the strength of Indian Tea with the flavour of Ceylon 
Tea and compared with which the Teas of old are as water unto wine 
or as the rushlight's glimmer to the electric glow. 

Women of light and leading everywhere appreciate a cup of good Tea. 

Let those who have not yet done so 
TRY VENOYA, T^B NBTW TEA.. 



A POSTCARD nddrasMd to the Pr>oppletop« of VENOYA TEA, 19 St 30, CAMOMILE STREET, 
will bring you by ratum a FREE SAMPLE and the name of the neareat e^ent. 



Printed and Published by iVaro & Foxlow, 



, Church Elreel, London, N.W.— Jur 



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TBS OBSAIT OF TBB XiraLISB 
"^oclcf^ of §!rten6« of Hussian Slteebom." 

RsSlttep«<t M a Newipap«p for TranamlMlon Abroad. 



Vol. 4^Ho. 10.) lONDON «M NEW yOEK : OOTOBEE 1st, 1898. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 

The English Society of Frieods of Russian Freedom, fbnnded Id November, 1889, haa (or It objects to aid, 
to the extent of ita powers, the Russian patriots who are tr^ng to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creea, who cannot witness with indifference the honors perpetrated in the Empire oftheTzars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Rossian people. Further contributions to the funds and 
further work are needed and will be welcome. Membershipisacquiredby sending to the Treasurer an annual 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Frtt Russia post free. 



GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF 
Those markad with 



RUSSIAN FREEDOM, 
{bnn the Executive Committee. 



RLHon.A.H.DylMAeland,M.P. 

William Allan, M.P. 

Rev. ChsriH A. Berry, O.D. 



nev. i^nariH n. oerrj. u 

Rsv. Stoptbrd A. BpooKO. 
Paroy W. Bunting. 
Thomai Burt, M.P. 
•W. P. BylM, M.P. 
The Counteu of Carlisle- 
Rev. W. Moore Ede. 
J. E. Ellis, M.P. 
Miu iMballa a Ford. 



"L T. KobhouM. _ _ 

Rsv. Pa£s Hopps. 'Edward R. Peasa. 

R. A. Hudson. ■& H. Perria 

*Miu Mary Har^rave. *J. Allanson Piston, M.P. 

Rt.Hon.J.Q.8haw-Ufevr^M.P Mrs. Herbert Rix. 

R. Maynard Leonard. 'Herbert Rlx. 

Thomas Lough, M.P. H. Roberts. 

John Maodonald. Joshua Rowntrse. 

•W. Msokenzie. Wtn. Saunders, L^.O., M.P. 

"Mrs. Charles Mallet. Rev. Prof. Shuttle worth. 

•E. J. 0. Morton, MP. •Adolphe Smith. 

Robert Spence Watson, LLD., Son. Truuiirir, Bensham Grove, Gateshead. 

*Q. L Mallet, Hon. Secnlary, 132, Cromwell Road, South Keodngton, LondoD, 5.W. 



J*. P. 

Professor Stuart, Jj.P. 
•Herbert M, Thompson- 
*Wm. Thompson. 

J. 8. Trotter. 
*T, Fisher Unwin. 
*Mr«. Wilfrid Voynioh. 

Mrs. E. Spenoe Watson. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
•Mitt Helen Webb, M.8. 

Henry J. Wilson, M.P. 



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July I, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



91 



CONTENTS. 

Ftarfttl Pentctttion of SlundUls. — Tke two great 
RtfifblKS in AUiaHce with the Tzar. — Honoring 
Peter Lavrov. — Correspondence from Paris — 
Bibliography. — George Kennan at Barnard's Inn. 
— Meetings. 

July ist, 1893. 
4/y H 1 LST the English papers announce tiie 

" " severe sentences of imprisonment, expul- 
sion and exile passed upon the Protestant 
pastors in the Baltic provinces, for ministering 
10 their newly- converted Russian brethren, we 
get from the interior of the empire terrible, blood- 
curdling news about the abominations perpe- 
trated upon the peasants who have embraced 
Protestantism and are known as Stundists. 

For some time rumours of these outrages 
reached us from various sources ; but Ihey were 
too horrible to be believed. Now they are 
confirmed by authentic letters from the victims, 
giving all names, dates and details, which 
cannot be reproduced in full without an offence 
to decency. 

In the province of Kiev, thedistrict of Skvira, 
in the village Babenez, the village authorities, 
with a view to the "extirpation of Stundist 
heresy," kept the male members of the Stundist 
families at work, not only by day, but often by 
night as well. Whilst the men were absent 
the zealous servants of the Orthodox creed 
broke into their unprotected houses, destroying 
their property, ill-lrealing the children, and 
torturing and committing the last outrages upon 
the women, unless they consented 10 cross 
themselves in the Orthodox fashion. The 
village Starosta and Starshina (elders), with the 
badges of their authority on their breasts, were 
leading and directing the drunken band of 
burglars and villains, and these abominations 
went on week after week. 

Unable to get a hearing from local ofllictals, 
the Stundisls resolved to make an appeal to 
public opinion. They wrote letters to Russian 
pubhc and literary men, whose names ihey 
could get, and sent a copy of their letters telling 
of their martyrdom to some American Quakers, 
whose addresses they succeeded in obtaining. 

These harrowing documents have been sent 
by the Americans to the Russian Minister of 
the Interior. An inquiry will be probably 
instituted, but it will be of little use to those 
who have suffered. The date of these letters 
is September 14th, 1H92. About nine months 
has elapsed since the perpetration of these out- 
rages, and all the time these unfortunate people 
have been at the mercy of their tormentors. 

Is it not time that some step should betaken 
to prevent or remonstrate against these bar- 
barities due to the systematic incitement to 
religious intolerance on the part of men like 
Pubedonoszetf and companions ? 



rpWO recent facts, very different in their 
-^ importance and bearing, but equally 
revolting, have had a similar effect in awakening 
the pubhc conscience of the countries where 
they occurred. The one was the handing over 
to the Russian authorities of the papers of 
Savitzky, the Polish refugee and Russian sub- 
ject, whose tragic end in Paris was mentioned 
in our last issue. The other is the promulga- 
tion in America of the Russian extradition 
treaty, which thus becomes a law of the land. 

The virtual delivery to the tender mercies of 
the Russian police of alt the unfoitunate people 
whose nimes may have beAi mentioned in 
Savizky's correspondence provoked a storm of 
indignation in the Parisian press, and has 
stirred profoundly French pubhc opinion. For 
the first time since the unfortunate Franco- 
Russian alliance came upon the field imposing 
protests were made against the constant sacri- 
ficing of the honour and dignityof the Republic 
to the problematic advantages of an insincere 
friendship between the two governments. 

The promulgation of the extradition treaty 
between the Russian Tzar and the United 
States took nobody by surprise, and proved 
that the few bits of information atx)ut it 
smuggled into the press were perfectly correct. 
Article 3 declares the attempts against the 
Tzar or any member of his family and " acces- 
sorship thereto " to be necessarily now a 
political offence, and therefore extraditable. 

To complete the list and to make extraditable 
the few Russian political refugees who may not 
be " accessories " to the previous offences, there 
is Article 6, referring to the fabrication of pass- 
ports, " counterfeiting of seals and dies, im- 
pressions, stajnps and marks of state and public 
administrations, and the utterance thereof." 
As has been already mentioned in these pages, 
in consequence of Russian passport regulations, 
there is not a single political refugee who has 
not been guilty of such an offence. All and 
each of them can be therefore claimed by the 
Russian government. 

But the manifestation of public disapproba- 
tion of this scandalous treaty — to which its 
promulgation willgive a new impetus — has been 
so great and unanimous that the treaty was 
converted into a dead letter before it was 
officially announced. It is doubtful whether 
the Russian government will dare to ask the 
extradition of any political offender, and if it 
did, it would only hasten the abrogation of the 
treaty itself, which is a question of time. In a 
democratic country a law which has been so 
emphatically condemned by public opinion will 
not stand long, and it is not unhkely that 
together with with it will disappear the practice 
of " secret sessions," which will be a decided 
improvement in the American constitution, and 
will render impossible in the future the 
repetition of similar blunders. 



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July I, iSgs. 



Correspondence, 

[From a Paris correspondent.] 
"VOU know, I presume, that the Tzar and 
Tzarina for some time past have been 
busily seeking a wife for the Tzarevich. At 
one time tlie Greek princess was the presump- 
tive bride ; but the conduct of the Tzarevich 
during the famous journey round the world and 
the closer acquaintance which the Greek royal 
family had the opportunity of making with their 
intended son-in-law brought this prospect to an 
untimetv end. The projected alliance was 
dropped. It is rumoured that in searching for 
another bride— a task which, for certain special 
reasons, is accompanied with some difficulty — 
the Russian court was contemplating an alliance 
with the Princess of Parma, and to this effect 
some unofficial overtures were made to the 
father. The old duke showed himself much 
gratified by the honour, but replied that his 
children were born Roman Catholics and will 
die in that faith. The match could not be 
brought about, because all the princesses 
marrying into the house of Romanoff have to 
embrace Orthodoxy. At the same time, the 
Russian court heard that the same princess had 
accepted the band of the Prince of Bulgaria, 
and I am told that the news of such a preference 
caused such an outburst of anger on the part of 
the Tzar that some rash action against Prince 
Ferdinand and his small principality has been 
feared. What is certain is that the announce- 
ment of the alliance caused at the court of St. 
Petersburg utterly unwarranted displeasure, of 
which Pobyedonostzev tried to take advantage 
in the interests of his " Orthodox" policy, and 
it needed all the influence of the Russian diplo- 
matic body — by whom Pobyedonostzev is most 
cordially hated — to bring the Tzar to a more 
peaceful frame of mind. The French ambas- 
sador, whose influence is considerable, rendered 
good service to the Russian Chancellor in this 
case. Yet the Franco-Russianalliance, of which 
Mr. Flourens is the mainstay, was imperilled 
for one moment by the indiscretion of some 
French papers at the time of the Panama trial. 
Baron Morenheim, the Russian minister in 
Paris, was accused of having pocketed a large 
sum of money for helping in the sale of the 
Panama bonds in Russia. The accusation is 
believed by those who ought to know. It is 
asserted that there are documents proving it in 
the hands of the rival ambassador who was the 
inspirer of these accusations, (it is not Count 
Hoyos, the Austrian minister, as has been 
rumoured in Paris). Neither the personal repu- 
tation of Baron Morenheim nor his financial 
position are such as to incline people to dis- 
believe the charges. The Baron is impecunious, 
always on the look-out for money to borrow, 
and over head and ears in debt, which have 
been twice paid by the Russian government. 



thanks to the favours of the Tzarina, who is 
the special patroness of the Baron. However 
this may be, the Tzar was very indignant at 
the mention of the Baron's name in connection 
with the Panama scandals, and informed his 
ambassador that he would be recalled if this 
newspaper campaign be not speedily stopped. 
Baron Morenheim, knowing who was at the 
bottom of the attack on him, went to his rival 
and made up the quarrel. The newspaper 
campaign was stopped and the matter was in 
a fair way of being hushed up when M. 
Ribot, who is not over-fond of the Russian 
alliance, made from the tribune of the chamber 
a speech which added fuel to the fire. The 
scandal was great, and the insult to the Russian 
ambassador too evident. The French govern- 
ment hastened to make up for it by an apologetic 
letter to the Tzar. But the Tzar would not be 
pacified, and Mr. Giers wrote under his dictation 
a reply, in which it was mentioned that when 
last year an affront was unwilhngly offered in 
Berlin to his ambassador, Count Shavalov, the 
German Emperor made, by way of reparation, 
a personal visit to the Russian Embassy, and 
that the Tzar expected President Carnot to do 
no less. To this M. Devel, who had taken 
the post of M. Ribot, replied that President 
Carnot is not like the Emperor William, who, 
as a young man, may sometimes act upon a 
first impulse, whilst a man of M. Carnot's age 
must keep up hjs position. The Tzar was, 
naturally, not satisfied with such an explanation, 
and this caused a diplomatic refroidtutnunt. 
But I do not think it will last long : the Russian 
government is in such need of cash, and France 
is so rich. 



Bibliography . 

Russian Subjects in June Magazines. 
With Tohtoi in the Russian Famine. 

The figure of Count Tolstoi is already 
familiar to English readers. Jonas Stadling, 
in his article in this month's Ctnluty, confirms 
our idea of him ; but the larger interest of his 
experience lies in his descriptions of the famine- 
stricken district in which Tolstoi and his family 
were organising relief. It is the old tale oif 
criminal indifference of the greater number of 
the upper classes, the old charge of exaggera* 
tion with which, all the world over, people 
excused their folded hands in times of distress. 
In the face of such a great evil and of such 
discouragement, individual effort often seemed 
useless, yet the work done by Tolstoi, his . 
family and outside helpers was so organised as 
to give it the fullest efficiency. The peasants 
were not only kept from starvation at the 
moment, but an effort was made to feed their 
horses, to provide them with seed, and to 
educate their children. But those who are 



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July I, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



03 



working to alter tlie potiiical and social coa- 
ditions of the Russian people are preparing to 
strike, not at the effects, but at the root of the 
evil. On the causes of the ever- recurring 
famines, on the future condition of the Russian 
people, the writer is silent. 

The Rev. W. Mason loglis gives us in the 
Gentleman a graphic descriplioa of Cronstadt, 
the impregnable seaport, and Peterhof. He 
contrasts the quays at Cronstadt with the medly 
of miserable, half-starving peasants waiting to 
be hired, with the luxury and beauty of the 
summer retreats of the aristocracy and merchant 
princes at Peterhof. He ends with a tribute 
to the kindness and courtesy of the Russian 
officials, and remarks significantly : " We found 
them most anxious that we should form a favour- 
able impression of their interesting country." 

" Miu Htiba Stretton at Home." — Sunday Magaitne. 
It would be arrogance to attempt to find a 
reason for a special ukas of the Tzar, but it is 
interesting to learn that "Jessica's First Prayer," 
by Hesba Stietton was ordered by Alexanderll. 
to be placed in every school in Russia. Not 
less interesting is that Alexander 111 has 
revoked the order and condemned the remaining 
copies to be burned. Has an unorthodox 
tendency been discovered in this simple and 
pathetic httle story since Hesba Strct ton's name 
became conspicuous among the Friends of 
Russian Freedom ? 



On June i4tti, the Paris colony of Russian exiles 
and Btudeals gave a. banquet in honour ol P. L.Lavrov 
on the occasion of bis 7otti birthday. The hail of 
the Palais Royal was crowded with Russian and 
foreign guests, among whom where French, German, 
Poles, Roumanians, Austrians, and Finns. For over 
40 years Peter Lavrov stood in the front rank of the 
champions for the enfranchisement of the masses of 
the Russian people from economic and political 
tyranny, and his name, as an author and thinker, is 
associated with all the phases of Russian develop- 
ment. One of bis earUer books, bearing the modest 
title " Historical Letters," marks an epoch in Russian 
intellectual history, whilst the extensive work of his 
later days, now in pubUcation, — the " History of 
Thought "—marks an epoch in socialistic literature. 
Hia long and important services in the common 
cause have called fortb, on the occasion of his 
anniversary,eothu3tastic recognition. Congratulatory 
letters and telegrams were received from all parts 
of the world, including the chief intellectual centres 
of Russia, from which places, as a matter of course, 
the messages had to be drawn up in secret meetings 
and conveyed clandestinely. 

Numerous speeches were deUvered, and Lavrov's 
own address, calling the younger generations of 
Russians to the struggle for socialistic ideas, pro- 
duced a deep impression. 

" I came home at two in the morning," writes one 
of the guests, "and could not get to sleep until five, 
so excited I was. I do not rememt>er ever being In 
such a fever." 



Mr. George Kennan in 
London. 

On the evening of Saturday, Juue 10, in the quaint 
old hall of Barnard's Ion, the Executive Committee, 
in the name of the Society, gave an " At Home, to 
meet Mr. George Kennan " during his brief sojourn 
in London. The gathering was large and enthu- 
siastic and thoroughly representative- Amongst 
those present were Mr. A Hanson Picton, M,P., Mr. 
Byles, M.P., and Mrs. Byles, Mr. LoUfih, M.P., 
and Mrs. Lough, Mr. William Allan, M.P., Mr. 
E. J. C. Mortoo, M.P., Mr. Webb, M.P., Hon. Gilbert 
and Mrs. Coleridge, Mr. WaHer Crane, Pro- 
fessor and Mrs. Murison, Rev. Mr. Hunter, Mr. 
Moy Thomas, Mr, E, J. Clave, Dr. and Mrs. 
Kempster, Mr. Richard Stapley, Mrs. Mallet, Mrs. 
Astley Cock, Miss Hesba Stretton, Miss Isabella O. 
Ford, Miss Helen Webb, Miss Lee, Miss Honor 
Morton, Mr. Jetfs, Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Pease, Mr. 
H. M.Thompson, Mr. G. H. Ferris, Mr. Maynard 
Leonard, Mr. W. F. Moulton, Dr. Todhunte^ Mr. 
George Slandring, Stepniak, Volkhovsky, Tchai- 
kovsky, and Krapotkin. The reception was an 
unparalleled success, and Mr. Keonan was heartily 
received. Mrs. Stepniak and Mrs, Eustace Hartley 
dispensed refreshments from Russian samovars. 

No small share in the success of the gathering 
must be ascribed to the excellence of the musical 
mtnu provided by Siguor Angelo Mascheroni, as 
chef, and Mr. S, A, Hertzberg, as general manager. 
The several courses were not brought in as a con- 
tinuous repast, but were served up at intervals 
during tbe evening. One could thus enjoy the 
various musical p\al% without being in any way 
compelled to remain in one part of the room for 
more than a few minutes at a time. This arrange- 
ment worked most harmoniously and seemed to 
(ilease every one, more especially as the free circu- 
ation of tbe guests— all eager to exchange kindly 
greetings with numerous friends, and in particular 
to welcome Mr. Kennan'->kept the rooms in a 
delightfully cool cooditiou. II Maestro Mascheroni 
first played with much piquancy a valse de concert 
of his own composition (on a Wiokelman grand, by 
the way), and shortly after Signer AgoChilveri used 
his fine voice with great effect in " A Soldier's Song.' 
Two pieces, " For all eternity" and an aria from 
Boito's " Mefistofele," were given by Mdlle. Paulina 
Biancoli, of the Co vent Garden Opera, whose 
charming and brilliant soprano was tne theme of 
general admiration ; and Signer Aramis thoroughly 
deserved the hearty applause with which his ren- 
dering of songs by Tosti and De Lara was received. 
Mr. Francis Lloyd was listened to with marked 
attention while he sang with much delicacy a pretty 
song called " Lively Spring," by W. Colnen, and 
last, but not by any means least, the well-known 
contralto. Miss Grace Damian, laid us under a heavy 
debt of gratitude for the pleasure afforded by her 
most artistic interpretation of Mascheroni's "Land 
of Yesterday " and Siebel's song, " Le pailate 
d'Amor " (Faust)- 

During tbe course of the evening Mr, Allansoh 
Picton, M.P., in the absence of Dr. Speoce Watson, 
said he had come to the meeting with considerable 
difhcuityi he had, in fact, been on the stump in 
Hyde Park— (laughter)— but he would on no account 
have missed it, for interesting as all tbe other 
occasions of the gatherings of the S ciety had been, 
the interest of this occasion far surpassed all others, 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



July I, 1893. 



aod urged bim to make the utmost endeavours to be 
there as soon as possible. It was their great honour 
to have with them that oight Mr. George Kenuan— 
(cheers) — whose book on Siberia and the Siberian 
prisons bad been, he would venture to say an epoch- 
making work— (cheers)— making, as it did, such an 
impression on the feelings of the civilised world that 
will never be eflaced. The evidence of impartiality 
which that book contained, its judicial temper and 
the anxiety which was manifested to know and speak 
nothing but the exact truth impressed the minds of 
all nations. Without prolonging his own words, 
however, he would read a letter from their President, 
in which he apologised for what must be a great 
disappointment to himself, his inability to be present. 
He writes: — 

Newcaslle-on-Tyne, gth June. 1893. 

Dear Mr, Mackeniie,-^! greatly regret that 1 cannot 
be with you to meet Mr. George Kennan. For those of 
us who are interested in the work of our Society it will 
be an important meefing. Our very existence is due in 
jarge measure to the flood of light which Mr. Kennan let 
in upon the condition of political exiles in Siberia, and to 
the deep,inlerest aroused by the account of his personal 
examination into the system, just when we are pained 
by (he conclusion of the Extradition Treaty l«lween the 
free Government of the United Stales and the despotic 
Government of Itussia, and chiefly pained because of the 
serious discouragement which it must be, not meieiy to 
the Liberal party in Russia, but to the believers in 
democratic government everywhere, it is well that we 
should be reminded, by the presence amongst us uf Mr, 
George Kennan, of how deeply the world is indebted to 
American citizens for their splendid exertions on behalf 
of freedom in Iheir own and in other lands. 
Yours faithfully, 

HoBT. SpENcti Watson. 
Before asking Mr. Kennan to be good enough to 
address the meeting, he would wish to add bis own 
expression of opinion to that of the President that 
the Extradilion Treaty just concluded between 
Kussia and the United States must be explained by 
accidental circumstances altogether apart from the 
feeling of the people. (Hear, hear.) He had reason 
to believe thattbepcople of the United States, if they 
had understood the provisions of that treaty, would 
have scouted it. The Americans were quite as much 
in sympathy with a great people struggling to be 
free as the English could pretend to be, and he was 
sure that the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon 
race would go hand in hand in an alliance with 
those who were struggling for the establishment of 
human rights and justice. (Cheers.) 

Mr. George Kennan, who was received with loud 
cheera, said :— Ladies and gentlemen : Friends of 
Russian Freedom : It gives me the greatest pleasure 
and satisfaction on the occasion of my first visit to 
London since I returned from Siberia to receive such 
a welcome as this, and to see such gratifying evidence 
of the interest in the cause with which 1 have been 
more or less identilied. When 1 passed through 
London in itl66 there was no Society of Friends of 
Russian Freedom in this or in any other country. 
At that time three of the Russian refugees who 
are here to-night were then in Siberia. One 
of them had just served out his term of penal 
servitude at the mines and was on his way to 
Yakutsk, and to Felix Volkhovsky 1 had just said 
good-bye in the Western Siberian city of Tomsk, as 
to one who was a dying man, as I never expected to 
see him again. Since then seven years have elapsed, 
and now I find in Loudon the large and strong 
Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. I find half 
a score of lecturers engaged in the work of awakening 



public opinion to the true state of affairs in Russia. 
I find everywhere an iatelligeut comprehension of 
the Russian situation, and a warm feeling of sym- 
pathy with the struggle for freedom and liberty, and 
1 find a free Russian press publishing regularly 

Solitical and other pamphletB by the thousand in the 
Russian language for circulation in the empire of the 
Tzar. For this great change in the aspect of affairs 
between my two visits to London I heartily congra- 
tulate you. I should be proud and glad if 1 could 
feel that 1 had any considerable share in bringing 
about this great change, but as a matter of fact I 
have had very little to do with it. Tbe awakening 
of public opinion in England in connection with 
Russia has been very largely the work of this Society, 
and particularlv of your President, Robert Spence 
Watson, Stepniak, Edward R. Pease, Volkhovsky, 
and many other members of the Society. For 
myself, I have done what I could in my own field. 
When I visited the political convicts in 1885-6, I 
said, " If I live and get out ol this country in safety 
with my notes and papers I will devote the rest of 
my life to making the civilised world acquainted with 
your wrongs and sutTering," and I have kept my 
promise. (Cheers.) Within tbe last six years, 1 
liave written J5 magazine articles and reviews dealing 
with those banished slrugglers in Siberian prisons, 
and have delivered 500 public lectures in all pacts of 
the United Slates, from Mame to Cahforma, and 
have been told here to-night many times that my 
book has touched hearts and made more impression 
than any book they have read for years. If that 
book has touched your hearts it is because tbe book 
has first touched my heart. (Cheers.) If, when 1 
went to Russia, anyone bad told me that at my age 
and with my experience there was yet in store fc>r 
me the slroogest emotion of my life 1 should have 
laughed ; and yet that statement is perfectly true. 
1 was more moved and stirred by what I saw in 
Siberia than by anything that bad happened before 
in my life, and many pages of that book were written 
with teais in my eyes, alone in my room. It is not 
niv purpose to make an extended address to-night ; 
I have neither the time nor the strength for such. I 
merely wish to express my cordial appreciation of 
the honour you have conferred on me by enabling 
me to be present at this tueeting, and to say a few 
words of encouragement about tbe movement. 
Many people ask me — amongst them a Russian 
Princess travelling in America — what is the good of 
such efforts, tbe effects of which are only like the 
r.pples made by a stone thrown into the ocean? 
Such people I remind of the mightv man slain by^ a 
pebble taken from the brook and thrown by a strip- 
ling. (Hear, bear.) The work in which we are 
conjointly engaged, namely, co-operating with brave 
and noble spirits in Russia to obtain independeuce 
and freedom— and freedom moves with great slow- 
ness — may seem to such people hopeless, but we are 
not discouraged in that we. do not exactly see its 
effects. When a party of sappers and miners begins 
to work at the base of an impregnable fortress, 
the casual spectator may say, " What are tbe resulte 
of your labours ? You have been investing the 
fortress for months, yet the walls are as impregnable 
as ever." Yes, tbe walls may seem to stand firmly, 
but tbe building is undermined, and it is only a 
(juestion of time when the castle will tumble into - 
ruins or be blown into the air. This is the case in 
Russia, and we are undermining it with ideas — 
(cbeers)^ — and the Government In Russia knows (hat 
it is more difficult to dispose of ideas than dynamite. 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



95 



In Russia a school teacher asked for a definitioD of 
th« word " idea." At last one little girl said, " An 
idea is what is opposed to the Government." 
(Laughter and cheers.) The answer may not have 
been entirely satisfactory to a professor in an Enslish 
university, but it is accurate for Russia. (Hear, 
hear.) There ideas are what are opposed to the 
Government, and there is an attempt made by the 
Government, therefore, to keep all ideas out of the 
Empire, for they realise that they are dangerous, 
and do not allow them to cross the border. About 
a year and a half ago the United States Government 
sent two of its officers of immigration into the Russian 
Empire to investigate the condition of the Jews, to 
find out what was the cause of the large and increasing 
immigration into America. They devoted three or 
four months to that careful investigation, and 
reported to the Secretary of (he Treasury at 
Washington. Three weeks ago the Russian Jews' 
Committee here in London, wishing to make the 
Tzar acquainted with the state of his Empire, and 
with the state of the Jews, sent aoo copies of this 
report to the Tzar himself, to the ministers of the 
Tzar, to the governors of the Russian provinces, to 
all the members of the Council of the Empire, and 
to all the high ofKcials. Do you suppose these 
reports were allowed to reach their destiaation ? 
No. Every copy of the whole aoo was seized and 
returned to the Committee in London, marked 
" Prohioited." Thus you can see that the Russian 
Government is more afraid of ideas than of anything 
else ; and it not only keeps them out, but excludes 
every person in possession of ideas. Several of us — 
Mr. Harold Frederic, Dr. Kempster, and Colonel 
Webber— have been officially barred out of the 
Empire, and our names are on the black list at all 
the frontier stations. All our reports and articles 
are blacked out or returned, our private letters are 
destroyed, and we are forbidden to set foot in the 
country. But we consider this the highest distinction 
that can be conferred on us by the Russian Govern- 
ment, and I think I express the sentiments of my 
other friends when I say that we would rather be 
barred out oi the Empire for defending the oppressed 
and the persecuted than to be entertained by his 
Imperial Majesty at the Court of Russia and to be 
decorated with the Russian Cross of St. George. I 
have been asked some times since 1 came to London 
what we have accomplished with our lectures and 
books and Friends of Russian Freedom. It mast be 
remembered that all the streams of tendency in 
Russia are underground, and it is diFHcult to esti- 
mate their force ; and, in the second place, it is 
extremely difficult to get any accurate information 
out of Russia. But I can tell you some of the things 
we have accomplished. We brought about the 
abolition of Aoggmg of women in Russia. ' (Cheers.) 
It bad long been the custom to flog women in 
Siberia, but the publicity we gave to the flogging to 
death of Madame Sigida at the mines of Kard, and 
the criticisms made on the matter by the foreign 
press, induced the Government to propose a law for 
the abohtion of flogging for women, which has been 
promulgated and carried out. We have been instru- 
mental also in the creation of an atmosphere outside 
Russia, which every Russian feels directly he leaves 
his country and travels. (Cheers.) Before, be would 
never have expressed any disapproval of the acts 
which we condemn, but in England and the States 
he feels that there are certain features of his Govern- 
ment — such as judgment without a sufficient trial— 
which are repugnant to the ideas of all free peoples. 



And this Russian goes back with his ideas a littla 
modified, and they exercise an influence greater than 
we can imagine. And this atmosphere of hostility to 
oppression is not confiaed to England and the United 
Stales, for from Austria, Germany, Holland, Turkey, 
the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, New Zealand and 
Java come expressions of sympathy in our work. 
But even if I could not tell you what gOid we had 
accomplished in working for the Russian ciuse, the 
fact that I am fighting with the bravest and noblest 
spirits of Russia in their struggle for freedom, and 
the fact that if the oppressed think of me as their 
champion in the outside world— these are enough for 
me. (Cheers.) Most of you are familiar with the 
massacre of the political exiles at Yakoiitsk. All of 
of the survivors of this tragedy were tried by court 
martial for " resisting the police " and found guilty. 
Three were hanged, and most of the others were 
sent to the mines at Kard, in the remotest part of the 
province. (Shame.) One of those condemned to 
death, Zotoft, wrote in his cell the night before he 
was hanged, a little note, in which he said, " We are 
not afraid to die ; but try to make our deaths connt 
for something. Write it alt to Kennan." If it please 
God to spare me, that appeal shall not be in vain- 
(loud cheers)— their death shall count for something; 
and if I live all the English. speaking world shall 
know the story of the atrocious crimes that stain 
with blood the pages of Siberian history. (Cheers.) 
A certain Russian Princess, who was travelling in 
the United States, said that Mr. Kennan's work in 
carrying on an agitation against the Russian Govern- 
ment was merely a droD thrown against an ocean. 
That may be so ; but if tne Princess has been brought 
up in the orthodox faith, as she ought to have been, 
she will doubtless remember the story of the giant 
and the little stone thrown from the brook. (Hear, 
hear.) Whether I succeed or not, I have the satis* 
faction of knowing that 1 will lighten the hearts of 
many prisoners, and give sympathy and encourage* 
ment in many lonely Siberian settlements. I would 
rather know this— I would rather know that an exile 
thought of me when he ascended the scaffold, that, 
when be was dying, with his last breath be should 
say, " send it to Kennan ; let Kennan know," than I 
would wear the Imperial purple. (Loud cheers.) 

Mr. Allan, M.P., said that the struggle for liberty 
that was going on in Russia seemed to him one of 
the greatest spectacles the world could present to 
the human mind. Here were a great despot and a 
great peopie,—the people crying out as of old for 
their bonds to be removed ; the hard iron autocrat, 
the great white Tzar, doing aJl he could to crush the 
people. The battle of hberty and freedom, as the 
history of the world showed, was always slow, and 
uo good thing had ever been won without suffering. 
The people of Russia having set themselves to clean 
this Augean stable of an autocratic system of govern- 
ment in Russia, would accomplish it, no doubt ; but 
they would suffer, and many grand men and women 
would tread the dreary way of death to Siberia. He 
did not wonder at the deeds of the revolutionary 
party in Russia, (Hear, bear.) Were he in the 
same position as the bitterly wronged and oppressed, 
had be a mother or a father sent to Siberia, to 
undergo such things as they bad heard of from Mr. 
Kennan, he did not know what methods he would 
not employ to have revenge upon the authors of his 
friends" sufferings. (Cheers.) They had met that 
night to express their sympathy witb those who had 
the Russian cause at heart, and he begged to assure 
them that he was with their cause. (Cheers.) 



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96 FREE RUSSIA. July i, 1893. 

Mr. BvLES, M.P., said that after the eloquent cause of freedom. (Hear, hear.) On behalf of th« 

speeches they had just heard he would not detain Committee he was indebted to those ladies and 

tnem by attempting to translate their aspirations for gentlemen who had taken the trouble to come, but 

' freedom for the oppresEcd into any words of his, he was sure they would feel themselves amply repaid 

but would address himself for the moment to the by having come into contact with such a man as Mr. 

practical'part of the matter. He was a member of Kennan and almost all the leaders of the movement 

the Committee of the Society of Friends of Russian for Russian freedom. (Cheers.) 

Freedom, but outside [he Society there were a great Mr. Pictoh desired to thank Mr. Kennan and the 

many who sympathised with the movement who were other gentlemen who had spoken to them, and (o 

unacrjuainted with tlie work and methods of the express his indebtedness to tnose who were present. 

Society. To any such who were there that night he He felt sure that their enioyment of the evening 

wished to say that the operations of the Society were would be all the greater for what they had just 

mainly conducted throueh a small manthly news- heard. (Cheers.) 

paper, published in England, and America. They _ -- — 

were, in short, the " sappers and miners " referred The Executive Committee.— The monthly meeting 

to by Mr. Kennan, and were endeavouring to under- of the Executive Committee was held on June lolh, Mr. 

mine the big strong citadel of Russian government by H. M. Thompson, presiding. 

the circulat on and introduction of Liberal ideas Havpstead.— A drawing-room meeting was held on the 

through their paper Free Russia. But unless people evening of June 13th, at Lawn Houie, the house of Dr. 

could be got to read them it was no use publishing. f?" Mra. Arthur H Thompson, and was well attended. 

The difficulty was to obtain for it distribution and ^J- Felix Vol khovsky defivered his lecture on -The 

circulation, ind the most practical help which could ?'^'{ °' ">' ^\ ^"'* J"^y ?^.i!!°S^"^u ' "'l^"''*- 

L_ - „„ L „.„ „ ,.,„o .., ™„t (k.™^.-i ^, .,.,4 «., dently impressed by the tacts placed before them. Short 

be given by persons was to get themselves put on ,^^^1,^ "^ere delivered by Br. Arthur H. Thomp»n^ 

thcsubscnptionliattothepaper andby communi- jST Herbert M. Thompson and Dr. Herbert sSniih 

catmg with the Secretary, Mr, Mackenzie, It would four new members were enrolled in the society and 

be possible to get it sent them every month, as many jog, 3d was received tor literature sold 

copies as they wished. All that wis necessary was Owiog to the reduction in the size of our paper want of 

to send him 5a., op any larger sum they might desire space compels us to omit ■■ The Story of ifie^tnndisi - 

to send. L.ectures were also given by fnends of the and other matter. 

Society, and by these agencies they believed the Subscribers wbomaychangeiheiraddressarerequested 

Society was doing something, if only a little, in the to inform the Publishers. 

ADVRRTISEMENT. 



WHY DOES RUSSIA LAG BEHIND 

in the March of Humanity. to Freedom? Is it not perhaps because being 
a nation of Tea Drinkers she still clings to the sapless and strengthless 
China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
progress have accepted with glad acclaim 

VENOYA »™w TEA 

which combines the strength of Indian Tea with the flavour of Ceylon 
Tea and compared with which the Teas of old are as water unto wine 
or as the rushlight's glimmer to the electric glow. 

Women of light and leading everywhere appreciate a cup of good Tea. 
Let those who have not yet done so 
TRY VENTOYA, THE NBVW XEA. 

A POSTCARD Bddrassed to the Proprietors of VENOTA TEA, 18 & HO, CAMOMILE STREET, 
win bHng' you by return a FREE SAMPLE and the name of the nearest agent. 



Printwl and Published by Waku & Foxlow, 113, Church Street, London, N.W.— July 1 



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Free Russia 

TBS O&aAlT 07 THE EITaUSB 
"$oc\etif of §frtcn6a of 'glussian §trcc6om." 

Regitteped aa a Newtpaper for Tf«nsmlBaion Abroad. 



Vol. 4.— No. 7.1 



. NEW YORK : JULY 1st, 1898. 



[One Penkt. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM 

The English Society of Frieods of Russian Freedom, founded in November, 1889, has (pr it objects to aid, 
to the extent of its powers, the Rus5ia.n patriots who are trying to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self-government which Western nations have enjoyed for generations. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without distinction of nationality 
or political creed, who cannot witness wltii indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tzars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Russian people. Further contributions to the funds and 
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GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Those marked with an *, form the Executive Commillee. 



Rt.Hon.A.H.DyktAetand,M.P. 

Rev. Charlsi A. Berry, D.D. 

Rev. Stopford A. Bpooke. 

Percy W. Bunting. 

Thomae Burt, M.P. 
•W. P, Byies, HP. 

The Counteie of Carlisle. 

Rev. W. Moore Ede. 

J. E. Ellis, H.P. 

MiM iMbella 0. Ford. 
•L T. HobhouM. 

■Robert Spenos Watton, LLO., Hon. Truuitrti', Bensham Grove, Gateshead. 



Rev. P^a Hoppa. 

R. A. Hudson. 
'Mill Mary HaMrave. 

Rt.Hon.J.a8haw-Liifevpe,M.P 

R. Maynard Leonard. 

John Maodonald. 
■Mrs. Charles Mallet. 
•E. J. C. Morton, M.P. 

J. Fletoher Moulton, Q.D. 
'Edward R Peaw. 



•Q. H. Perrlt. 

*J. Ailanson Plcton, M.P. 

Mrs. Herbert Rix. 
'Herbert Rix. 

H. Roberts. 

Joihua Rowntree. 

Wm. Saunders, LC.C, M.P. 

Rev. Prof. Shuttleworth. 
•Adolphe Smith. 

Henry D. Stephen!, M.P. 



Prorestor Stuart, M.P. 
'Herbert M. Thompson. 
•Wm. Thompion. 

J. 8. Trattar. 
*T. Reher Unwin. 
•Mrs. Wilfrid Voynioh. 

Mrs. E. Spenoe Watton. 

Alfred Webb, M.P. 
*Miss Helen Webb, M.B. 

Henry J. Wilson, M.P. 



* William W. Haokenzie, Hm. Stcntarf, 14, Redcliffe Gardens, Soalh Kensington. London, S.W. 



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October I, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



"5 



CONTENTS. 

NoUs of Ike Month. — A Russian Philosopher in 
London (by Supniak). — Tht Empire of the Tzars and 
the Russians fa review by Herbert M. Tiwmpson.) — 
B^iograpkyfbyA.R.) 

Notes of the Month. 

The floggmg of taxpayers, which is a universal 
panaoea for iDsolvenoy in the raral districts, oan- 
not very well be practiced in towos. Here the 
police have bad to apply to other less drastic 
methods. Id Tambov they hit apoo the amus- 
ing, tbongh hardly I^al, expedient of taking 
&om the inhabitants of a poor ward the taps of 
all their somovars (tea nms) thus depriving them 
of their favoimte drink ; the possibility of making 
tea otherwise than with a samovar would never 
occor to a gennine Bnssian. Abont 80 taps were 
thns brought in a sack to the police ofSce. The 
biek had its effect, and in a few days the poor 
people, who preferred to be without bread rather 
than witbont tea, brought in their coppers and 
redeemed their taps. 

In Berdiohev a paper has been started in 
circumstances which are characteristio of the 
Russian provincial press. It is edited and 
published in Berdichev, printed in Jitomir and 
submitted to the censor living in Kiev. Thus 
the readers cannot have news before it is a 
fortnight old. The case is common enough io 
the provinces : regular censor's offices existing 
only in the seven university towns. No wonder 
that under such oonditions the provincial press 
oaimot make much headway. 

The island of Sakhalien has become of late the 
favourite penal colony. To transport the convicts 
to that place, ships are now being built upon the 
Clyde. We have now, some official news as to 
the barbarous treatment of the, convicts in that 
God-forsaken place. The exploits of the super- 
intendent Kbanov were saob, that about 20 men 
inflicted upon themselves severe bodily injuries, 
chopping off their fingers and toes, in order to 
be removed, as inoapaoitated for work, to anotbet 
place. Others escaped to the forest, lying in the 
middle of the island, with little hope of ever 
reaching the main land, facing the horrors of 
death by starvation, merely to escape for a few 
days from tbeir bard task-master. Near Onor 
the authorities arrested a vagabond,.and found in 
his provision bag a piece of a man's body. 
The inquiry showed, tlMt be was one of a party 
of four,ttbe other three having been killed and 
eaten by tbeir starving companions. 

H « * 

CholcTK, which broke out once again in Russia 
ttiia aotuniD, is abating in some places, whilst it is 
increasing with aisiming lapidity in others. It has 
almost disappeared in Nijni Novgorod, Rastov upon 
the Don and Simferopol. But it is ou the increase 



in St. Petersburg, where the unmber of casea 
reaches on average of 60 per diem, and the increase 
is also noticed in the provinces of Vilna, Voronej, 
Kazan, Kursk, Mogilev, Moscow, Tchemlgov and tbe 
land of the Don Cossacks. 

The relations between Russia and Germany ore 
approaching a very critical point, and tbe future 
cannot be called otherwise than gloomy. The 
representatives of the two countries are meeting just 
now in Berlin to discuss tbe commercial treaties ; 
and it cannot be said that they meet in a spirit of 
conciliatiou. 

A very strange thing occurs in Russia just now : 
Autocracy is a form of government so entirely out 
of date and tbe middle class has grown so much in 
power that the government has tacitly acknowledged 
its influence, making only a show ot absolute inde- 
pendence. But in the absence of any legal means 
tor tbe expression of the public opinion ot the bulk 
of the nation, only a very small section of the nation 
— the upper middle class, tbe mitlionaires, the stock 
excbange jobbers, tbe plutocracy — alone have the 
power of asserting tbeir will, their great wealth 



part of the government to listen to the voice of 
the uatioD brings about the subservieocy to a clique 
of self-seekers who would not hesitate one moroeut 
in inflicting upon tbe country tbe worst calamity if 
it may turn to their private advantage. 

The Russian government does not wish and 
cannot wisb to bave war with Germany. Yet, In 
obedience to tbe promptings of that aristocracy of 
the market, it is rushmg headlong into a policy 
which may bring about at any moment a mihtary 
conflict. The senousnesa of the position is increased 
W the noisy demonstration of French hostility to 
Germany, which the forthcommg arrival of Russian 
naval omcers in Paris gives occasion to. For a long 
time European peace has not been in such danger 
as it is just now. 



A Russian Philosopher in 
London. 

The Bussian colony in London can well be 
congratulated on the addition of a new member, 
Vasily Vasilievicb Bervy, an eminent Buasiaa 
writer and philosopher, who came over to 
England with tbe special object of publishing 
here some of bis most oheriGued woriu, iphich 
could not see the light in tbe dominion of tbe 
Tzar. Mr. Berry's opinions are not those of a 
" Nihilist." He stands and has always etood 
somewhat aloof from tbe general movement, 
having created for himself a position and views 
apart. 

But as a staunch opponent of tbe ioiquitooa 
regimi prevailing in Russia and a champion of a 
brighter future, V. Bervy is a man of no party. 
He is one of tbe most striking figures in the 
glorious list of Bnssian men who have devoted 
their lives to tbe struggle with tbe powers ot 
darkness. 

V. Bervy is now 64. The best part of bis long 
life — full 26 years — were spent in exile and in 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



October i, 1893. 



aolitaty confiDement, 82 prisoDS baving seen him 
within their walls. Yet V. V. Bervy has 00m- 
mitted no act which could be coDsidered a breach 
of law in any civilised country. He is above all 
a thinker, an earnest seeker after social and 
philosophical truth. 

But such men are an eyesore to the Russian 
government and Mr. Bervy was hunted down and 
perseouted in a way that would have broken and 
omsbed a man with less spirit. 

Mr. Bervy was, for the firat time, implicated in 
a " pohtical " affair and arrested when he had 
already reached the mature age of forty, in oir- 
cnmstances oharscteristio both of him and the 
ways of Russian bnreaoraoy. In 1862, a year 
after the emancipation of the serfs, the thirteen 
representatives of the nobility in the province of 
Tver, with Europeus and Bahunin at their head, 
sent in a petition, respectfully asking the Tzar to 
grant free constitution to the country. The 
terms of the demand were as modest and humble 
as could be desired. But the government was 
alarmed at the stop and resolved to make a 
Halutary example. The thirteen noblemen were 
arrested and conveyed to the fortress of S.S. 
Peter and Paul. 

The Russian code strictly prohibits all " coUec- 
tive " petitions in general, which are regarded as 
akin to seditious demonstration. In ease of a 
general grievance, all those concerned of impli- 
cated are expected individually to petition the 
Tzar upon it, the right of personally applying to 
the Master being snpposed to be the birthnght of 
bis subjects. The nobility, moreover, was granted 
I9 Catherine II. the right of sending to the Tzar 
throngh their aarshala in special oases collective 
petitions, a right which had not been withdrawn 
at that time. 

The Liberals of Tver did not secure the media- 
tion of the ■■marshal" of their province. But 
this was the only point of transgression against 
the forms of law. They could not be so severely 
punished for that as the government wanted 
them to be. Then Count Fanin resorted to the 
fbllowing trick : There is in the code of law a 
paragraph concerning the wilful miscarriage of 
or disobedience to an order given by the Tzar in 
person. It referred to oral orders that may be 
given by the Tzar to his ofGcials, and the penalty 
was from five to ten years' penal servitude. Now, 
since in Russia all laws are the emanation of the 
Tzar's will, and can be viewed as his personal 
orders. Count Panin conceived the brilliant idea 
of punishing the 18 Liberals of Tver on the 
Btrength of this paragraph. It was not only 
absurd but simply a flat and stupid joke like a 
witticism borrowed from a primer. Yet the 
servility of the Russian court is such that nobody 
dare to protest against the absurd interpretation 
of the law, and the 13 noblemen were on the 
point of being condemned on the strength of a 
judicial joke. 

Mr. Bervy. then a very snooesBfal offioial in the 



ministry of justice, knew, as a matter of oonrse, 
of the extraordinary piece of jugglery of his chief, 
and resolved to expose him and to save the 18 
petitioners, with whose object he, of oonrse, waa 
in full sympathy. 

To this effect he wrote a memorandum which 
he sent to all whom the matter might concern : 
to the members of the judicial profession, to 
senators and to the marshals of nobility all over 
the country. This caused a great sensation, and 
so soon as Count Panin's design was brought to 
light, it could no longer be carried out. The 
ridioolons indictment against the 18 petitioners 
was withdrawn, and they were not tried at all. 
But it can hardly be said, that they derived muoh 
advantage horn this ; since there was no law 
severe enough to be applied to their case, they 
were punished without any reference to law by 
administiative order, all the 18 being exiled, 
some to Siberia, some to the northern provinces. 
Mr. Bervy, their champion, was treated in a very 
oriental fashion : he was declared to be out of his 
mind and looked up in a mad-house, where he 
was kept for eight months and then exiled to 
Astrachan, the authorities having evidently dis- 
covered that there was too much method m his 
madness. 

From this epoch, Mr. Bervy was a marked man^ 
The police did not let him alone for the next 40 
years. On suspicion that he had taken part in 
the efforts of a secret revolutionary society, to 
organise a peasant insurrection upon the Volga, 
Mr.Bervy was arrested in 1868, a few months after 
his arrival in Astrachan, he was sent off under 
escort to Kazan, whioh was the centre of the 
o]^anisation, and kept in prison for another eight 
months. "No proofs of his guilt being forth- 
coming, he was exiled to Siberia," so nms the 
official document referring to hie case. This is 
not a joke, or misprint : people are exiled in 
Russia by administrative order on snspieton. 
They fare much worse when the poUce oaa bring 
some evidence in support of the charge. 

Mr.Bervy waa settled in Kusnetzxy district (pro- 
vince of Tomsk) and after two years was removed 
to the chief town of the province. In 1866, Mr. 
Bervyhad to undergo another" removal," inflicted 
upon him for no comprehensible reason, and 
possibly with the benevolent object of improving 
his position, whtob did not prevent it from oaus- 
ing the hapless exile and his young wife most 
excrntiating sufferings. Mr. Bervy was told off 
irom Tomsk to Vologda, a town a few hundred miles 
distant from St. Petersbui^, and enjoying a 
comparatively mild climate. But it is full 8,000 
miles from Tomsk, and this distance, Bervy and 
his wife had to make on foot with a gang of 
conmkon criminals by 6tapes, a journey which at 
that epoch, seemed to have been something even 
more terrible than it is described aa bung in 
Mr. Eennan's book. 

Even now, after the lapse of 27 years, Bervy 
and his wife cannot speak withoal a shudder of 



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117 



tfaeir terrible experienceB. The itapei where the; 
had to Bp«nd the nights after the march were 
eimply dnug-hllls swarming with vermin, which 
covered the walls, floor, ceiling and every inoh of 
space. Sleep was rendered impossible by the 
incessant torture oansed by the parasites pene- 
trating under the clothes, filling the ears and 
hair and covering the face. And Mrs. Bervy 
had her first-bom baby, nine months old, The 
&mily spent six months in these shocking con- 
ditions. After the first few days the bodies of the 
child and mother were one large sore. The baby 
oonld never grow into a strong child, and the 
health of both the parents was permanently 
injured. 

In Vologda the family stayed only for two 
years. They were then removed once more, this 
time to Tver, which is a mnoh better place. The 
fact is that dnrin^ this period Bervy wrote several 
of his books, whioh made him one of the most 
popnlai men in Russia. His stndy npon the 
oondition of the labouring class in Bnssia marks 
an epoch in the growth of democratic and social 
ideu. His " Primer of Social Qciences " was at 
one time in the hands of every earnest Bnasian 
student, A whole generation was edncated npon 
these books, and the government understood the 
danger of making a martyr of an author who had 
already acquired anch an influence over the minds 
of the young generations. 

In 1870 Mr. Bervy was forgiven his nnknownand 
undefinable offences, and flowed the liberty of 
settling wherever he liked, with the exception of 
the two capitals. He chose Nijni Novgorod, 
where he got a good situation in the railway 
administration, and could, after eight years 
wandering, enjoy some rest. 

But M.I. Bervy is one of those indefatigable mis> 
aionaries of freedom whose energy and vital power 
seem to increase in proportion to the efforta to 
orush them. Soon i^r his settlement in Nijni 
Hr. Bervy, then a man of 60, forfeited his freedom 
and prospects of future tranquility by writing for 
a dandeatine printing office a pamphlet entitled 
" How to live according to the law of nature and 
juBtioe." It was an impaesionate plea for equality 
and abolition of all class diatinction and all 
tyranny, hot there was not a line in the pamphlet 
that could be construed as an incitement to crime. 
No civUised government would raise any objection 
to the Iree circulation of this pamphlet. In 
Russia the young people who published it and 
spread^a few score of it among the peasants and 
artizansof the towns — Dolgnshtin, Domokhovsky, 
Papin, riotinkov and otberB — were punished with 
penal servitude for terms varying from eight to 
16 years, and one-half of them have succumbed 
by now to the horrors of solitary confinement 
and the hardships of Siberian prison life. 

The authorslup of the pamphlet having been 
detected, Mr. Bervy was arrested and ^Iragged from 
prison to prison and then &om one place of exile 
to another for tall 14 years, having to suffer with 



his family indescribable misery, being often on 
the verge of perishing from want. 

Yet he went on writing his many literary works 
and carrying on the oral propaganda of his views 
among the people, where accident had thrown 
him. It was dunng this period that he completed 
the two concluding volumes of the " Primer of 
Social Sciences " which he considers the chief 
work of his life. 

Few of his books could be published in Russia. 
As for the "Primer" the thing could not be 
thought of. It is with the object of shaking off 
the fetters of the censorship and speaking out 
freely what be values more than his life, that 
Mr. Bervy resolved at the age when most people 
look for reat, to face the privation and loneUness of 
an exile's life. 

We can fairly expect much from his pen, which 
hifl old hand wields with a power and swiftness 
which would pnt to shame younger rivals. His 
" Primer " is to appear before long in the Ruaaian 
language. Now he is engaged upon his autobio- 
graphy, intended both for the RussiEin and 
English readers. He is an indefatigable worker, 
being able to sit at hia writing desk 10 hours a 
dayregnlarly and this with a diet that isa positive 
puzzle for a physiologist. He is a vegetarian and 
advocates an extreme simplification of Hfe, in 
which he leaves Tolatoi and Edward Carpenter 
far behind. For the last 15 yeara he haa eaten 
only once a day a plateful of rice boiled in water, 
with one glaas of red wine the physicians have 
prescribed to him on aocount of hie weak health. 
S. Stefnuk. 



The Empire of the Tzars 
and the Russians. 

By AHATOI.X Lkbov-Beaulibu. 
Part I. — " The Country and its Inhabitants," 

translated with annotations by Z^nalde A. 

Ragozin. — (O. P. Putnam's Sons, New York 

and London.) 
It is to be regretted that we have had to wait 
ten years before receiving even the first instalment 
of the translation of thia very important book. 

The existence of Mr, Mackenzie Wallace's 
"Russia" by no means abrogated the necessity 
of making accessible to English readers its French 
brother-work, for, in the first place, it is a younger 
brother, and gives information 10 or 12 years 
nearer to being up to date; and, in the second 
place, the scope of the two works is by no means 
the same. 

True there are chapters scattered through 
Mr. Wallace's book that touch on most of the 
main subjects of whioh M. Leroy-Beaulieu treats 
in this first volume. But the former book is 
too much of the nature of an interesting series of 
letters from a newspaper correspondent to compare 
fJATOurably either for aompleteness or system* 



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October i, 1893. 



atiBation with its Frenoh companion. Of the 
subject of the first four books of M. Leroy- 
Beanlieu's work (viz., "Nature, Climate, and 
Soil," " Bacee and Nationalities," "National 
Temperament and Character," and " Hietory and 
Elements of Civiliaation ") we may say that the 
treatment is much more thoiongh and satisfactory 
tliao that accorded by the English book. To 
the exposition of the subjects of the seventh 
and eighth books, however ("The Feasant and 
the Emanoipation " and " Mir, Family, and 
Village Commnnites "), the remark would be less 
applicable ; for these questions were specially 
studied by Ur. Wallace, and very /nlly treated 
by bim. 

It is on omisBion in the volume before ne 
which it is difficult to excuse that nowhere is 
any indication given to the reader that the work 
of which it is the English version appeared some 
10 years ago. This, in writings concerning a 
country where the political conditions change as 
often and as rapidly as the; do in Bnssia, is a 
matter of the greatest importance. The editor's 
notes, it is true, do something towards giving 
recent information, and there appears to have 
been some very slight attempt at revision of the 
text, but this has been so superficially done, that 
it would have been almost better to leave it 
alone. On page 68S an aathor's note gives dates 
80 recent as 1887, 18B9 and 1890, and in one 
other place in the book the date 1666 is mentioned, 
but I think these are the only two instances 
where reference is made to dates included within 
the last decade. 

On page 6 the population of the conntry is 
given as 90,000,000 (it is evident from the 
context that it is intended to include Siberia), 
on page 42 the contemporary computation of 
115,000,000 is given. 

But the real importanoe of the date of the 
writing lies not go much in discrepancies of this 
kind, as in the writer's attitude of mind towards 
the Russia of to-day. 

The book is on the Bussian " prohibited list," 
and I suppose that is to be expected, as it contains 
occasional passages like the following : — " This 
facalty of adaptation, confined until now to 
private life, to external politeness, to arts and 
sciences, can " (w.) " any day extend into novel 
Bpberes such as government, institutions, public 
liberties" (page 192). But in spite of such 
occasional lapses into speculation the book is on 
the whole so sturdily loyal to its conception of a 
faithful, and in the main well-intentioned govern- 
ment, that did the censorship possess a grain more 
of liberality or of intelUgenoe than it actually 
exhibits, the governmental authorities wonld 
welcome 11. Leroy-Beaulien's book into Bnssia 
as one of their best friends. 

It is this attitude of mind on the part of the 
writer that makes it so important to know when 
the investigation which his book represents took 
place. It is barmonions with the ideas of the 



first half of Alexander IL'e niga, the period of 
reform which saw the emancipation of uie serfs, 
the establishment of the zemstvos, the relaxation 
of the press law, censorship, &a. 

One cannot help suspecting that the author 
was brought less intimately into contact with 
Bussian stairs during the second part of that 
reign, the period that witnessed the lamentable 
reaction which un^d so much of the good 
previously done, and culminated in the assassin- 
ation of the monarch who had earned his title of 
" Liberator " when he had reigned 16 years, bnt 
had done a good deal to lose it when he had 
occupied the throne for 26. 

However that may be, we know at least that 
&[. Leroy-Beaulieu's book appeared so early in 
the present reign that it can necessarily take no 
account of the intenser obscurantism by which it 
has been marked. In its pages we have no 
introduction to Pobedonostzev, Procurator of the 
Holy Synod, and oheif instigator and director of 
the religious persecution. 

But whatever the bent of M. Leroy-Beaulieu's 
views may be in regard to Russian political 
questions, he always treats them in a broad 
pbiloBophioal way, which obviously endeavours 
to be fair, and to see matters from many sides. 

We can hardly say as much for his translator 
and editor Mr. Z. A. Bagozin, the naive qneml- 
ousness of whose copious notes is often in 
amusing contrast to the declaration in his preface 
that " very rarely, very respectfully " ne has 
offered " some slight objection to the views of the 
author." 

Certainly we are left in no donbt abont Mr. 
Ragozin's inclination to defend Rnssia-as-it-is 
through thick and thin. Yet he has not the 
excuse of having written 10 years ago when be 
demands admiration (note on page 186) of 
Bnssia for respecting the autonomy of Finland I 
or when he claims for it in the same note 
" scrupulous respect " for the religion of "alien 
subjects " and gives as an example the treatment 
of the Hebrews I The note on the next page which 
speaks of the " mild, unobtrnsive, onmterfering 
Orthodox Church " might really be an exoerpt 
firom Mi. Botkine's recent artiole in the Centiuy 
Magatitu. 

But it would be easy to be nnjust to Mr, Bagozin. 
His jealonsy for Russia-as-it-is evidently springs 
&om the genuine love for his btherland, though 
he has yet to learn that true patriotism is better 
employed in trying to remedy the evils of one's 
country than in denying their existence. 

For the rest, I have no doubt that his claim to 
have given a perfectly faithful version of M. Leroy- 
Beauueu's work, even when he most disagreed 
with it, is well fonnded. 

The translation is in many respects a good one. 
One discovers indeed a good many sli^t errors 
in construction and grammer wluch betray the 
work of a foreigner, and moreover of a foreigner 
who has lived in America, but they aia fbr the 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



119 



moat part tmimportRDt. We oan forgive him, 
too, when he tells as (page 96) that " the 8Uvb 
are no more Astatic than we are, or if thej are it 
b only in the manner and degree that we are 
ourselves." 

Turning once more to the actual contents of 
the book I should like to draw attention to the 

Sarttoalar excellence of some portions, e^., the 
eeoription of the phyeioal geography of the 
oonntry oontalaed in Book I. ; the insiatanoe in 
its third chapter on the youth of Uodem Russia, 
too, is interesting. It points ont that like the 
United States or Anatralia it is in reality a 
ooimtry but quite recently colonised. [The popalation 
100 years ago waa estimated at about one-quarter 
of ita present nnmber, in 1816 at little more 
thui one-third, not mnob more than one-half in 
1861]. This is. sorely a very hopeful feature, 
for with quite changed conditions, may not quite 
fresh developments be anticipated 7 

Book II, is ethnological and exhibits immense 
skill in forming from such complex and oonfusing 
material so clear and vivid a picture. The 
bearing of this book on the vexed question how 
tax the BuBsians may be considered European, 
how far Asiatic, is most important. 

The remaining books are not less excellent. 
In tlie fourth chapter of Book III., the subject of 
which is " Nihilism," a signlar instance occurs of 
the tendency which I have noted in oar author to 
pot as good an interpretation as possible on the 
acts of the government. The regulations which 
have been introduced into the higher education 
establishments, enforcing the study of the classical 
languages to an inordinate degree to the exclusion 
of many subjects which the students are more 
eager to follow, is explained by Mr. Scepniak and 
others as being a deliberate attempt to render 
education barren in order that intelligence (which 
is likely to find itself in opposition to the govern- 
ment) may not be fostered. M. Leroy-Beaulieu 
says OD this subject (page 206) : " the coarse and 
repulsive realism so obtrusively apparent in 
Nihilism, so perceptible in the Busaian schools 
among the majority of students, could not fail to 
attract the attention of enlightened minds and 
the government. Against the unwholesome beat 
of ^e young and of the national mind a remedy 
had to be sought for, a counterpoise, primarily in 
the education of the young." . , "Lacking 
better means, recourse was had to classical 
studies, but in vain. Literature and the dead 
languages being the studies most disinterested, 
moat removed from actual preoccupations, were 
thought to be the best corrective to the exaggerated 
natnralism of embryo Bazarofa. Under the 
influence of Eatkdf and his Moscow Gatette, the 
ministry of public instmotion, directed by Oouat 
ToUtoi, has been long at work, striving to subject 
the entire young generation to this classical 
discipline and through that to a sort of ideaUstic 
gymnastics or drilling." 
Which of these two views receives eupport from 



other features of the policy of the minister of 
" education ?" Is the non-provision of adequate 
school accommodation, and the discouragtmcHl of 
Ike e forts of tkt zemslvos and others to provide in 
this respect for a growing population, character- 
istic of an enlightened educational policy, or of 
one determined to stultify and restrict education ?" 

In Book VII., very fall particulars are given of 
the manner and conditions of redeeming the 
lands for the liberated serf, and light is thrown 
on some of the sabseqnent economic troubles by 
the explanation of bow ill-estimated was the 
redemption price in different regions. It is 
shown that the peasants received very onequal 
treatment. 

It is seldom one can close a volume of 680 
pages on so soUd a subject as the country of 
Russia and its inhabitants with the consciousness 
that one has not found a single one of them dull, 
and (in spite of the thoroughness of its research) 
the happiness of having experienced no sense 
even of heaviness in any portion of it. Yet such 
is the resalt of the remarkable vitality which 
infoses Mr. Leroy-Beaulieu's writings. He has 
the faculty of making every fact he relates 
pregnant with meaning by ezhibitingits correlation 
to other facts, and without any tedious amount 
of recapitulation or iteration, he contrives to keep 
the larger aspects of his subject before the reader's 
eye, even while treating of ita details. It is no 
small thing to have work of such soUd value 
presented in so attractive a form, 

Hrbbkbt M. Thoufson. 



Bibliography. 

Russia and the Septeuber Magazines. 
The Balance of Power in Eastern Asia. — (Blackwood.) 
The author of this paper comes to the same 
conclusion as Colonel Bell : that Russia will devour 
China in parts as she can digest them. Russia, we 
are told, presents " a combination of aggressive 
energy such as has perhaps never been witnessed 
on the face of the earth." This aggressive energy 
is accounted for by the writer by the " fanatic^ 
ambition of the military and official hierarchy, 
and the cultured class; backed by a vast ground 
substance of patriotic protoplasm." China can 
only oppose Russia with an antiquated military 
system and with an official mauhooa " enervated by 
milemums of literary examinations." The concln- 
sioa is obvious. Given the fixed purpose of Russia, 
the independence of China, unless supported by 
some strong western power, is doomed. Yet does 
one point in this paper want further consideration. 
The Russian political system, the writer tells us, 
being an anachronism is doomed; but he dismisses 
this point by saying that a change in the political 
system in no way anects the question of aggression, 
and yet surely the component parts of the extra- 
ordinary " aggressive combination," of which he 
writes, the " ambitious military and official hier- 
archy," as well as the "ground substance of patriotic 
protoplasm," are the products of a despotic mon- 
archy—and of a despotic monarchy only. 



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Russian Jtwry. Part I. By Hall Caino.— fPaW Mall 

Magazine.) 

The expressions of sympathy of Herbert Spencer, 
Mr. GladstoDe and Mr. Spurgeon with the Russian 
Jews were received in Russia, we are told, with 
oerision ; if I may venture to say so, I doubt whether 
Mr. Hall Caine's article would be received with 
pleasure. We are to know both sides and he ia to 
tell us where the Russians are right in this matter. 
Alexander II. once said that the Jewish question in 
Russia was to be solved in the same way as the 
Jewish qaestion had been in England and France, 
and yet) since i88z, Hall Caine says, " Only a race 



of heroes would have withstood the treatment they 
have received." An analysis of the accusations 
brought gainst them by the Russians seems to 
show that m cleanliness and business matters their 
Christian competitors are not, in a marked decree, 
superior, whereas in purity of Ufe they are infenor. 



In our last issue a misprint occured in the article 
" Pleasant yet Regrettable News from Russia," the 
statement that copies of Free Russia bad been 
reproduced by hectograph in Warsaw being incor- 
rect. It should have read " in Moscow." 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 



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WHY DOES RUSSIA UG BEHIND 

in the March of Humanity to Freedom ? Is it not perhaps because being 
a nation of Tea Drinkers she still clings to the sapless and strengthless 
China Teas of thirty years ago ? While the nations in the vanguard of 
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VENOYA »™w TEA 

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Lecture List. 

The ladicB and gentlemen whose names appear in 
the following liat have, with the approval of the 
EzecQtive Committee, consented to lecture jrafu on 
the subjects opposite their names, hader the auspices 
of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 
Clabs, associations, societies and similar institutions, 
or sympathisers with Russian Freedom, desirous of 
securing the services of any of these ladies or gentle, 
men, should communicate with the lecturer direct. 
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Thuraday or Friday.) Single Lecture : " Russia 
and her People." Three Lectures : " Russia and 
Siberia (i) Geographv and Climate ; " (2) " Early 
History; " (3) " Late History." " Land system- 
present Condition- The Mir, the Commune," 



Three Lectures: "Russian Martyrs;" (i) "The 
Peasants;" {2) "Administrative Exiles;" (3) "The 
Stundlsts." A Course of Nine Lectures, devoting 
two to the subject of Administrative Exiles. 

W. F. MouLTON, The Leys School, Cambridge. 
Subject : " Russia To-day and To-morrow." 

G. H, pERRis, 115, Fleet-street, E.C. Subjects: 
" Russia's Place in Modern Europe." " The 
P<rsoH»f/ofthe Russian Revolitliooary Movement." 
" The Episode of the ' Terror.' " " The Coming 
Crash in Russia." 

Miss Ada Radfori>, i. South Hill Avenue, Harrow, 
Subjects : " Russian Exiles," and " Russia and the 
Revolutionists." 

George Stanoring, 7, Finabury-street, E.C. Sub- 
ject: "The Russian Revolutionary Movement." 
Miss 0. L, Mai,let, Hon. S9C. 



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123 



CONTENTS. 

NoUi of ike Month. — The Franco -Russian 
Ftstivitits (by S. Suptiiak.) — Bibliography. ~ 
Robberiu by Cahintt MxntsUn and Grand Dukes.— 
"Legality" according to official views. — Mn.MaUett's 
Lecture and Dr. Spencs Watson's Lecture at Leeds. 

Notes of the Month. 

A terrible eatastroplie has oconrred on the 
Baltic. Oa September 20th, the ironolad 
Boealka went down in a comparatiTely calm sea 
with 165 Bailors and 12 officers, not a single man 
esoaping. A sabsoription has been opened for 
the Benefit of the famihes of the victims, and an 
official inquiry has been instituted. The papers 
allow themedves to cantionsly hint that the 
disaster was due to the nDseaworthiness of the 
ship, which was boilt in 1867. and had been need 
for heavy artilleiy service. These earmises are 
bnt the expresaions of a fact universally known. 
The Bnaalba was pronounced onBeaworttiy by its 
captain, M. A. Yenish, and all the officers. Yet 
the Admiralty, in order to "hush up" an 
unpleasant fac^ ordered her to sail. When the 
oatastrophe oconrred an order was given to 
inspect all the warships of the Baltic Squadron, 
and three of them were fonnd nnfit for service. 
The papers received strict orders not to mention 
the matter. This is the usual method of the 
Bufisian administration. 

As is the case every autumn, the papers are 
full of complaints about the insufficiency of 
sohooU to satis^ the needs of the population. 
Here are a few eloquent facts. At the Mining 
Institute, for 80 vaoaaoies there were 280 well- 
qualified applicants ; at Uie Institute of Beads 
and Bailwaya there were 76 vacancies and 600 
applicants ; at the Institute of OivU Engineers, 
46 vacancies and 800 appUoants ; at the 
Technological Institute, 120 vacancies and 600 
applicants ; at the Institute of Forestry, 40 
vacancies and 800 applicants ; and so on. The 
overcrowding is as great in secondary schools, 
and hardly less in the primaiy schools. 

So great is the need for education that if any 
society or body of well-qualified private teachers 
were to start twice as many schools as there are 
now, the affair would be a success even from a 
financial point of view. But unfortunately there 
is no room for private initiative in that line in 
Bnssia. The government alone has the 
monopoly of education, and keeps it jealously, 
inventing every now and then new prohibitive 
clauses to hamper private activity in that 
domain. 

Very curious are the two recent inventions of 
this lund : Ukazes of the Minister of Public 
Eduoaiion, published on October 20th, establish- 
ing that men wishing to obtain oertifioates as 



private tutors must show that they have not 
received too much education themsuves. Hen 
with University degrees, for example, are not 
allowed to have this certificate, which is granted 
only to those who are ignorant enough not to be 
feared by the government. 

Another ukaze of the same date, referring to 
ladies' schools, imposes a new restriction upon 
the rights of the pupils in colleges licensed and 
controlled by the government but supported by 
private individuals. 

But if the government objects so mndi to 
letting the Bussians take care of themselves, it 
shows on the other hand a touching- paternal 
soUcitude for its " little children." 

In Odessa, in the middle of harveet-time, the 
"elders" of the neighbouring districts were 
sommoned to the town and compelled to leave 
their fields at the oruciat moment of the year in 
order to be present at the performance of a play 
in which the virtuous conduct of a rural offioiu 
was represented. 

The governor of the province of Vologda has 
issued a circular note to his district commanders, 
which is a production unique in its kind. The 
governor completely forgets that the peasants 
have been emancipated since 1861, and have 
therefore become legally recognised citizens. He 
wants to apply to them methods of patriarchal 
despotism, which bring us back to the times of 
serfdom. He wants the salutary rod and other 
paternal punishments to be kept over their heads 
to prevent them — from what does the reader 
suppose 7 — from raining themselves by extrava- 
gant expenditure. 

"It has come to my knowledge," says the 
circular, " that the peasants, owing to thur want 
of foresight, are inclined to spend the money 
obtained by the sale of the products of their 
farms upon things perfectly useless for their 
modest households, and serving only to foster their 
conceit and pride. I therefore think it advisable 
to propose to all the village communes to prohibit 
by then: votes sooh canless expenditure, and to 
infiict eSective punishment upon the trans- 



To make the execution of such an order more 
certain, the aU-powerfal district commanders are 
enjoined " not only to insist that such votes 
should be passed, but to point out to the peasants 
that such extravagance will lead to the increase 
of seventy in the collection of taxes, and will be 
considered a sufficient reason for the refusal of 
subsidies in case of famine." 

This means the total enslavement of the 
peasants, and an absolute prohibition of their 
disposing of their own goods as they think fit. 
Freed &om the nobihty, the peasants are now 
transformed into bond-uaves of the State. The 
above-mentioned circular does not eoruple to say 
so quite plainly. 

"Moreover" (thus runs the oondnsioa of this 



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November i, 1893. 



intereating doonmeat), " all ofEoUls having to 
deal with the peasants shoold repeatedly remind 
them that they are given the land exolnsively in 
order that tbey may be enabled to live and to pay 
taxes to the government. August 19, 1893." 

Fortunately, these intended beasts of burden of 
the State have already some feeling of their 
haman rights. 

In the light of this ptea against the popular extrav- 
agance, it is suggestive to read the result of the 
inquiry upon the insuranoe against bad crops. The 
government came forward with a proposal to the 
zemstvos to introduce obligatory insurance against 
bad hai-vests. To this project the congress of 
landowners of several provinces, sitting now at 
Saratov, replied almost manimously by a nega* 
tive, and the reasons were given as plainly as 
oonld be desired. " The insuranoe," said 
Mr. Yumatov, the representative of the zemstvo 
of Saratov, " can be applied only against 
ocoasional and incidental misfortunes. It is im- 
possible," he went on, illustrating his idea, " to 
meore a house which is burned down regularly 
everyyear. Now, the pesaants' farming basineas 
is with ns in the same position as that house 
which is regularly destroyed by fire. It has 
reached such a condition that failure of crops has 
become the normal thing." Another member of 
the congress, the tax inspector (i.e., a govern- 
ment official), sspporta the opinion that no new 
burden can be imposed upon the peasants, and 
makes the following statement : " However good 
the harvest may be in some places, there is 
always a failure of crops in others. Oh the 
average the supply of crops is 86,000,000 puds 
(over 28,000,000 bushels) short of what is the 
minimum of food necessary for the poptUalion." There 
is little room for "extravagance" with people 
constantly kept on starvation diet. 

The practice of convening "congresses" and 
inquiring into the wishes of different classes is a 
very obaracteristio and — we do not hesitate in 
saving — a verv encouraging token of the present 
policy of the Bussian government. There have 
been congresses of representatives of almost every 
large branch of numnfaotnring induBtries, from 
the distillers and sugar reBners down to the 
tobacco planters. Quite recently Cabinet ministers, 
on their periodical journeys across the country, 
got up dumers and parties at which now the 
"landowners," now the "merobaQts," were 
asked in the Tzar's name to speak freely about 
their grievances and give expression to their 
fkspirations. The resiut of these inquiries, it 
must be confessed, was not very satisfactory. 
The privileged people asked for more privileges, 
and the protected for more protection. The 
great grievance of the country is the dire misery 
of the peasantry, who form 86 per cent, of the 

nolation. Is it not clear that it is to them 
t of all that the qneation ought be pat ? It iB 



for them to be the first to speak of their 
grievances and devise means for tne removal of 
them — through their representatives, of coarse, 
aa 86 millions of people cannot be assembled at 
any dinner table. The thing is plain, but the 
plainest things are precisely the most difficult to 
nnderstand, requiring Bomething more stringent 
than logic to fit them into some men's beada. 



The Franco-Russian 

Festivities. 

A strange spectacle is offered by Bepoblican 
France just now. On the hundredth anniversary 
of the great Bevolntion, just at the time when 
the France of 1798 was celebrating a victory over 
the " hordes of slaves, traitors and allied kings " 
— as is sung in the " Marseillaise " — the whole 
of the " Orande Nation " throws itself upon its 
knees in a fit of servile enthusiasm before the 
only tyrant still surviving upon European soil, 
because, after a long hesitation, be has de^ed 
to send to them as guests a batch of bis officers 
and soldiers. If each of these men had in his 
turn been actually the saviour of France, they 
could not have been awarded a more " super, 
human reception." Flags, demonstrations, Ulu- 
minations, endless cheerings — all that goes with- 
out saying and is easily got up in a country so 
fond of noise and show. 

Bat on this occasion the French went to mnch 
greater lengths in their extravagance. It has 
been calculated that over 100,000 francs have 
been spent in presents to the officers and soldiers, 
whilst at the time of the famine of 1891, when 
England and America came forward with such 
generous assistance to the people, the " Mendly " 
France gave them not a brass farthing. All 
public business is forgotten for festivities. There 
are no more party politics in the chamber or 
outside. The French are not ashamed to say : 
" In the middle ages there was the trace of Ood, 
Now there is the trace of Bossia." They ought 
to say, " the trace of the Tzar," beoauee Bussia 
oonnts for nothing in this eoandaloos carrying 
the favour with despot. 

When two eminent Frenchmen committed the 
unpardonable act of discourtesy of dying ont of 
season, the first idea of their countrymen was to 
send them to the dogs. Only on second thoughts 
was it resolved to grant them sometbiDg like 
hasty public funerals. 

When the squadron arrived in Fans, the 
excitement reached its climax, culminating in 
manifestations so extravagant and comical that 
soothing laughter comes in irrestible to mitigate 
the depressing feeling of disgust. On the Place 
de la Concorde the French ladies for a whole 
mortal hour tormented the squadron with their 
kisses. An English morning paper told us, a 
few days ago, the etoty of a fYenoh wrauut 



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vho committed snidde in bononr of the BiuBian 
gaestB. She placed herself on the bridge over 
which the Tzar'a enToya had to pus. When 
they appeared she ahouted : " To aee them and 
then to die I " — threw heraelf into the Seine and 
woa drowned. She was dressed like an harlequin, 
m a jacket of French colours and a dress of 
Boaaian colours, and when they midressed her at 
the Morgne it was foond that her undei^arments 
were made of Baasian and French fiags aewn 
together. This good lady with her underclothing 
made out of two flags may stand as an emblem 
of modem France with the " Uarseillaise " and 
" God save the Tzar" twisted into one, 

What doea it all mean ? Has the oorraption 
of the " fin du siede," when all the bases upon 
which society rest have been ahaken in France, 
and people have no more foith in any existing 
ustitntions or prevailing principle,— has this 
corruption made the French insensible to 
anything but the dictates of the grossest selfish- 
ness ? or have the French gone mad, like that 
good lady in patchwork nnderclothing who threw 
hemelf off the bridge ? A little of both. 

We do not for one moment believe, and we do 
not suppose that the thinking men among the 
French believe, in the possibUity of a frank and 
cordial alliance between Republican France and 
the Busaian autocracy. Bussia is passing through 
a moat serious political crisis, the nature of which 
cannot for one moment be mistaken. The French 
can, if they choose, overlook the political side of 
the question, for they need not greatly fear the 
strengthening of the reactionary elements in their 
coootiy and iu Europe through Bussiau influ- 
ence. In stretching oat the right-hand of friend- 
ship to, and even in falling at the feet of, a ruler 
who embodies the principle of tyranny, they are 
merely repudiating their national institutions aud 
principles, and lowering themselves morally in 
the eyes of the civilised world. There is no 
more " aubatantial " interest for them at stake. 

Bat it is altogether different with the Tzar, 
who, on account of supreme considerations of 
domestic safety, — cannot possibly overlook the 
political bearing of the alliance, and the difference 
between the two powers, whose rivalry is the 
ourae of onr time. He will alwaya keep a warm 
place in bis heart for the semi-autocratic 
Germany. Of course, France, with her milliards 
as a dowry, is [deferable to Germany, with her 
prohibitive tariffs. But at any moment the 
Kaiaer may turn round, and then the Tzar is 
aure to tnm round too and throw over the 
unpalatable and unreliable Saucolottea. 

If Bussia is attacked by Germany, the Tzar 
will be glad of any assistance. But he will not 
move if France Edone is in peril, and will and 
must rejoice at every event which strengthens 
the position and antiiority of the German 
Emperor at borne. Consequently, all through 
this protracted flirtation, the Bussian Tzar has 
nuuntained the reserved attitade of a relnotant 



lover, and France, the not very dignified one of a 
lady of a certain class who tries to seduce him by 
all means, fair and foul, from lending him money 
and patting ou this wonderful underclothing to 
hunting down Bussian pohtical refugees, and 
handing over their papers to the Bussian police. 

It is ridiculous for the French to believe that 
they can so overcome the Tzar by flattery as to 
make him forget bis own interests. If he should 
really enter some day into a formal alliance with 
their Bepublic, it will be out of fear of an immi- 
nent danger from Germany, and he will throw 
them overboard the moment the danger shall 
have passed over. Snch an ally is more danget- 
ons and fatal than a pronounced enemy. The 
thing is self-evident. The hidden perils and the 
folly of the French infatuation have been pointed 
out in French literature by most competent and 
authoritative men. The French are too clever 
not to understand the thing. But they do not 
mind it at all, and go on as before ; and the 
reason is this : The French do not mean to go 
to war for the sake of the two lost provinces. 
All the big talk about the Revaitcht is a huge 
hambug— ^ /a blague — in which nobody believes. 

The only danger of a war between France and 
Germany hes in some untoward incident like the 
Eclmaebel affair, in which none of the parties 
will have the moral courage and authority to odet 
apologies. That is the opinion endorsed by all 
competent persons, and recently expressed inde- 
pendently almost in the same words by two ve^ 
rehable witnesses. Sir Oharles Bilke (see bis 
book and interview in Black and White), who is 
perhaps the beat authority on questions of foreign 
politica, and Mr. Emile Zola, who surely knows 
his countrymen as well as any man hving. 

The Fruioo-Bussian Alliance, like those cheap 
tin swords which officers wear at Court balls, is 
good enough for peace, and it is actually meant 
for peace. It is a big diplomatic demonstration. 
The French are tired of and annoyed at their 
isolated position and almost total exclusion from 
the sphere of diplomatic influence. They enjoy 
the idea of anubbing Germany. The Tzar 
possibly wants to anub both countries. But 
what he still more wants is money, of which be 
is very much in need, and he knows that Bepub- 
lioan gold doea not smell of hberty. That is the 
significance of the whole farce, and the point 
where the real interests of the parties meet. 

Good luck and good appetite I But why all 
this flunkeyism I The Frenchmen have some- 
thing BO very substantial to offer that they surely 
could retain a more dignified attitude. It is a 
common principle which holds good in diplomacy 
just aa in a country fair, that to drive a good 
bargain one must not show one's cards and must 
keep cool and self-possessed. By so completely 
throwing themselves away, the French spoil 
their own game with tiie Tzar. We need not 
mention that they permanently alienate the 
sympathy of Bnaaiao public opinion which oonnta 



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for Bomething and baa a hidden inflnence ever;' 
where, even in Bussia. 

Here is a very suggestive detail of the reoeption : 
" The Tonlon oorteepondent of the Titaes moBt be 
credited with oae of the most striking pieces of 
news oonceming the Franco -Bussian festivities. 
Acoordiog to his experienoe, as soon as the 
RuBsian sailors — officers and men alike — ^were 
allowed on shore, a large nnmber of them made 
their way at once — where ? Strange as it may 
Bonod, the answer is, to the booksellers. And 
there they laid in a stock of literatore prohibited 
in Bnssia which the Tonlon bookseller had 
speoially procured from Geneva. This literature 
oonsisted of BuselatL translations of well-known 
modem treatises on Sociology, Democracy, Politi- 
cal Economy, and Bocialism. We wonder how 
the Tzar will relish snoh a planting of seed for 
his Siberian garden," says the English paper 
&om which we borrow theselines. And we wonder 
on onr part whether the French onderstand the 
meaning of sncb a fact as this. 

If among the chosen messengers of the Tzar 
many are prompted, say, by cariosity, to read 
revolntionary literature, one can well surmise 
that the enbversive ideas have a strong hold over 
the balk of ttie Bussian thinking people. What 
a feeling of disgust and contempt the adulation 
showered npon the Tzar will prodnoe among 
them ! Yet the future belongs to these people 
and not to the antooracy. 

Pas trap de ziU was the maxim of practical life 
preached by one of the astutest of French politi- 
cians. Unfortunately, his ooontrymon are very 
Uttle able to follow this wise rule. They are too 
excitable, too easily carried away by the irresis- 
tible craving to shout louder than anybody else, 
and become, be it for one single moment, expo- 
nents, interpreters, and echoes of the crowd. 
The original aim is lost sight of. The crowd 
shouts, oheers or yells, as if possessed, for the 
mere enjoyment of the thing. This tendency 
works both for good and for evil. The French 
have a passion for democratic equality, but for 
individual liberty tbey have none. Some of the 
most shocking and tyrannical police laws date 
from the French Bevolution, and in the course of 
a century nobody has raised a voice of protest. 
Yet at one time the French were intoxicated with 
the idea of liberty, and became its champions 
and prophets for the whole continent. Now 
they have become intoxicated with Tzar-worship. 
Calculation for the basts — mania for the orown- 
ing of the edifice. 

It is a pleasure to note that there was one 
small group of people— the Paris Sooialiete — 
who have had the civic courage to protest 
against the universal aberration by Issuing an 
" appeal to Bussian sailors," couched in the 
spirit of liberty and true patriotism. It is 
written partly in French, partly in Bussian, and 
oontaina some excellent articles npon BneaiaD 
dcmieetic policy and npon the alliaDoe. 



Between the somnolent indifference of Ajnuican 
and the hysterical excitability of French republi- 
cans, the cause of Bussian freedom abroad ie in 
an evil plight just now. 

We conclude by calling the attention of onr 
readers to the speech of onr Ohairmau at the 
Leeds lecture of Mrs. Uallet, in which are 
pertinently pointed out the duties of the English 
in this predicament. 

B. Stxpiiiak. 



Biblio^aphy . 

Russia m the October Magazines. 
The Russian Jewry (Part II.), by Hall Caine. 

In the second part of his paper on the Rosnao 
Jewry, in Tht Pall Mall MagaziiM, Hall Caine points 
out that iu Russia, more than in any other European 
country, the Jew preserves the characteristics of a 
purely religious devotee. He ^ves, iu a graphic 
manuer, iustauces of his child- like, and often 
fanatical, faith. The Russian Jew still looks forward 
to the fulfilment of the hope held by his race for 
3,000 years, and has sbowu bis fanatical beUef hi It 
by founding a Society — " The Lovers of Zion " — 
whose object ia the colonisatiou of Palestine. The 
result of Hall Caine's investigatiou of the subject of 
the Russian Jew is, that he states that those who 
throw doubt on the sincerity of his reli^on are either 
actuated by intolerance or blinded by ignorance. 
Villages and Villagers in Russia, by Fred. Wrishaw. 

In this article Mr. Whishaw describes Drevno, a 
Russian village, only an hour's drive from St, Peters- 
burg, The village, the notice told them at the 
entrance, contains 47 souls, that is 47 responsibte 
men. The points of interest to the social student 
ace rather lightly touched on : the communal village 
life, its primitive and apparently satisfactory method 
of land ownership, and the &imly life taking us, for 
comparison, back to the patriarchs. The tumble- 
down state of the village, the mud in the courts and 
street, and the stupidity, idleness, and drunkenness 
of the Russian peasant, are dwelt on at length. 
One is left, after reading this paper, with the 
feeling that the tendency to drink too much ia 
stronger in the Russian peasant than in any other, 
and that that is the loot-evil. Yet Mr. Whishaw 
mentions that the government's chief source of 
revenue is the public house. " Education " he tells 
us, " is making great strides. Light is stealing 
gradually over the land." If this is so, the public- 
house will lose its ascendency, but there ace other 
institutions as venerable that will not stand if the 
day of light and edncation is at hand. A. R. 



Robberies by Cabinet 
Ministers and Grand Dukes. 

The " Leaflet of NarodnaiD Volia," a cevolntioaary 
papec published secretly in St. Petersbncg, throws a 
fund light upon the comiinion prevailing at the court of 
the Tiac. whose great ambition it to put down bribeiy 
and peculation. 

The most important ministry firom a govern- 
ment point of view — the Ministry of War — is 
corrupted through and throngh. Lut Hsfch ft 



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bet was discovered which ptodnoed » positive 
innio. The famoae new aim&ments on wliioh, 
(taring the last three yean, 20,000,000 roablea a 
year have been spent, have given a melancholy 
result : all the new rifles are absolatel; worthless, 
and the net loss of the Ministry amounts to 
87,000,000 roubles, everything has to be b^nn 
over again. To tmderstand tiie oansea of the 
disastrons resnlts of the armaments, one must 
know to what degree of d^ravity higher milita^ 
oiroles have attained during the ten years' ad- 
ministration of VannoYBky, the present War 
Uinister. The cormption reminds one of the 
days of Nicholas I., when there was not a single 
general or colonel who weib not a bribe-taker. 

Theft and misappropriation of funds have 
reached aaoh proportions in the regiments that 
many parts of the army aotnally lack ammunition 
and neoesearies. Similar foots have been dis- 
covered daring the last six months in the coarse 
of inquiries made in the military district of 
Moscow. 

The oormption begins high up in the scale. 
The Qrand Dnke Vladimir, commander of the 
troops for the St. Petersbnrg district, stole the 
greBter part of the money subscribed by thepsblic 
for the erection of a church on the spot where 
Alexander II. was killed. This fact was proved 
at the trial of the Seoretarr of the Academy of 
i^ts. Vannovsky and Qeneral Sofiano are 
aocnsed of having appropriated to themselves the 
lion's share of the 87,000,000 roubles which were 
swallowed up by the armaments. 

General Baranok, sent over to inspect the 
Turkestan amy, was poisoned at a dinner given 
to him by the governor of the province. Qeneral 
Vrevsky, and although the autopsy proved 
unmistakable traces of poisoa, the aSair was 
hashed up, and General Vievsky remained at his 
post. 

In March last, a trial with dosed doors took 
place in St. Fetersbnrg. M. Abaza fMember of 
the Council of State), and M. Yysnnegradsky 
(formerly Minister of Finance), were accused, the 
former of having gambled on the Stock Exchange 
on the fall of the rouble and having lost a sum of 
1,150,000 roubles, and the latter of having made 
good Abaza's sudden losses out of the State 
bank, Aooording to the indictment, Abaza, in 
Ootobw, 189S, bought £100,000 worth of English 
gold, settling day to be on November 1, depositing 
as guarantee £10,000. After a &11 of the rouble 
amounting to 16 per cent., he gained £16,000 of 
net profit. Encouraged by this snocess, and ooont- 
ing upon a new fall of the rouble, he commissioned 
the banker, Ba&alovich to buy on November 
18th, 1892, £1,000,000 worth of English gold, 
giving a deposit of ^26,000, But ^e rouble, 
after the sudden fall which followed the pro- 
hibition of the exportation of cereals, rose again 
as suddenly so high that the loss exceeded the 
deposit. Nevertheless, BafEoloviob and Abaza, 



hoping the rise to be only a momentary one, 
continued gambling. 

In January, 1899, the loss exceeded by ^0,000 
the sum deposited as guarantee. Baffalovich, 
frightened and discouraged, closed operations, 
paid the losses incurred, and demanded from 
Abaza the reimbursement of the ^90,000. Abaza 
applied to Yyslinegradsky, who ordered the State 
Bank to pay the sum to Abaza. 

There the matter rested, until M. Witte was 
called to the post of Minister of Finance. Dis. 
covering the trick, and fearing that the officials 
in control might also unravel the mysteiy of 
the £'90,000 which had been paid, without 
any jasti&oation, to somebody onknown, Witte 
drew up a detailed report of the whole intrigue, 
and submitted it to the Tzar. The Tzar called a 
special commission to inquire into the case. 
E^lippov (State Comptroller), Solsky, Fobiedo- 
noatzev (Procurator of the Synod), Vannovsky 
(War Minister), and Vorontzov-Daehkov (Court 
Minister) sat as commissioners. 

The tnlth of the accusation being fully proved, 
the commissioners drew up a report, which 
Pilippov submitted to the Tzar. But the Tzar 
stopped the prosecution, remarking : "Abaza and 
Vyahnegradsky are dead to me, and I have 
nothing to do with dead men " — as if the point in 
question were the Tzar's personal opinion about 
them I Many thieves would like to have the 
sponge passed over their acts on this principle. 



'■'■ Legality "" according to 
Official Views. 

We borrow the two IbllowiDg incidents {which 
may serve as a fair sample of the dealings of the 
Russian police) from the " Materials" published by the 
colony of Russian refugees in Paris ; — 

" In Kharkov, in tha beginning of this _year, the 
police arrested a student of the Technoiogical Insti- 
tute, wbo had behaved in a rather disorderly 
manner, and knocked bim about fearfully in the police 
station. The student, at the advice of the director 
of the Institute, complained to the procurator. A 
few days afterwards the student was suddenly ceiled 
up before the governor, whom he found surrounded 
by his entire suite, and by the police officials who 
had inculcated (with their fists) respect for authority. 
The governor sternly addressed the studeut: ' Do 
you still maintain that they beat you ? ' ' Yes.' 
The governor then asked the police- superintendent : 
' Is the story true ? ' ' No, it is quite impossible.' At 
this the governor turned upon the student ; ' And so 
you have dared to circulate false reports against the 
police ! To undermine the respect due to the law 
and its representatives I Apologise iustantlv to the 
policemen whom you have insulted and I will pardon 
you.' The student refused to apologise. ' Ah ! ' 
remarked the governor ironically, ' you wish the 
matter Ugaii'^ settled ! Very well, then, in virtue of 
the powers conferred upon me by law, you will be 
exiled within 34 hours.' " 

Another very characteristic incident occurred last 
year in Odessa. The university professor Rennen- 



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FREE RUSSIA. 



November i, 1893. 



kampf drove ap In a cab to the door of his honse, 
whicD stood close to a certain bridge, across which, 
on account of certain repairs that were being done, 
it was forbidden to drive. The policeman on duty 
supposed that the occupant of the cab intended to 
drive across the bridge, and, therefore, refusing to 
heat any explanations, dragged Professor Rennen- 
kampf from the cab and began to beat him with his 
fists. The professor naturally defended himself, 
but at the pohceman's whistle several more police- 
men ran up and, with pushes and blows, dragged 
the "sconndrel" to the police-station, where his 
identity was discovered. The professor complained 
to Bunin, tbe chief of police, but without result. On 
this Professor Sergievsky, who had come to Odessa 
to conduct the state examinaiions, offered to go to 
the prefect of the town, Zelenoy, to lay Eennen- 
kampPs case before him. To Scrgievaky's naive 
remark that the Russian law does not permit 
anyone to knock his neighbours about, Zelenoy 
replied that, as a matter of principle and without 
going into the matter, be was convinced that 
Ren nen kampf was the person to blame; — professors 
and students were as a class inclined not to respect 
the law ; but, all the same, be would send a state- 
ment to Rennenkampfs house. And 'indeed a 
statement was sent. It ran as follows :— " Your 
affair with the pohceman has been investigated, and 
he has been found to be in the right, and therefore 
has been given a reward of lo roubles," Rennen- 
kampt then went to St. Petersburg to complain of 
2elenoy to the Minister of Public Instructioo. But 
the matter ended in a dismal failure. Delianovsent 
to the prefect a telegram stating that " there is no 
other way to treat such persons as Rennenkampf." 



Leeds and the Society of 
Friends of Russian Freedom. 

On October i8, Mrs. L.T. Mallet delivered a lecture 
in tbe People's Hall, Albion -street, Leeds, under 
the auspices of the Society of Friends of Russian 
Freedom, her subject being Russia; her Peasants, 
Patriots, and Prisons." Dr. R, Spence Watson, 
President of the National Liberal Federation, 
occupied the chair. 

The Chairman said this question of the freedom 
of the people of Russia was one which should appeal 
to all freedom -loving Englishmen, and especislly in 
ft year like this, when strangely enough, the two 
great Republics of the earth — tbe United States of 
America and the Republic of France — had entered 
into a direct alliance with the despotism of Russia. 
And that alliance was not with the Russian people, 
but was with the Russian autocracy, at whose door, 
and he said it advisedly, more crimes against its own 
leige subiects could fairly and justifiably be laid than 
at the door of any other Royal family which they 
had seen, at all events, in modern times. They would 
willingly hold out a larger, firmer, and stronger 
band to the exiles in Siberia, but that depended 
entirely on the assistance which they could get Irom 
English people. That assistance had not been great 
so far, and one reason was that many people said 
they had their own work to do at home, and that 
Russia was a long way off. Yes, they had their own 
work to do at home, and it lay heavily upon all of 
them, hut he would venture to say that it was 
impossible to discharge these duties fully and faith- 
fully unless they remembered those higher duties 



which they owed to their common humanity. And 
in all humility he would say that the men and 
women who had taken up the cause of freedom of 
Russia in this countn' were not the men and women 
who neglect their duties to the family and to the 
State to which they belonged. (Applause.) Most 
of them could look back on struggles of freedom 
when they did not ask questions as to geographical 
situation. When they entered into the movement 
of freeing tbe slaves in America, if anyone bad told 
them their children's children would see slavery in 
the United States, they would still have gone on 
working cheerfully, but they had had to teach their 
own children what slavery in the United States 
meant. (Applause.) They bad seen a United Italy, 
a freed Hungary; one place after another on the 
continent of Europe they had seen throwing off the 
shackles of tyranmcal government, and though they 
might not live to see Russian freedom a!^evea, 
their children, he trusted, would have reason to be 
thankful that their parents did what they could to 
destroy the veiy blackest plague spot which at 
present existed on the face of the earth. (Cheers.) 

Mrs. Mallet then delivered her lecture, which was 
illustrated by limeUgbt views. It dealt with what 
she termed the martyrdom of the peasants, of 
the Nonconformists, and of poUtical prisoners of 
Russia. Tbe martyrdom of the lews she could not 
touch upon, but it was not the feast. Mrs. Mallet 
graphically described tbe terrible sufferings of the 
Dissenters, and of political exiles, the only crime of 
many qf whom was that they sought to educate their 
fellow-countrymen. Not the least thrilling portion 
of the lecture was that which described the lot of 
the peasant in a country where, tbe Imperial 
revenue is largely derived from the sale of a strong 
spirit, the use of which is therefore encouraged to 
the utmost extent. The ignorant peasant, Mrs. 
Mallet continued, was entirely at the mercy of tbe 
landowner, and when, in the winter, as inevitably 
happened, the former had to mortgage lua next 
summer's crop, be was charged i,20o and even as 
much as z, 500 per cent. It was estimated that in 37 
provinces of European Russia tbe tbe peasant paid 
gj per cent, of the produce of their fields in taxation, 
and the consequence was that they Uved on bread 
made out of acorns; sometimes ate grass, and she 
herself had tasted two winters ago Inead made of 
chaff, grass-seed and clav, which produced violent 
headache and nausea, but which the wretched 
Russian peasants were at that time glad enough to 
get for their starving children. 

Votes of thanks to Mrs. Mallet, on the motion of 
Mr. Latcbmore; and to the Chairman, on the 
motion of Mr, J. R. Ford, terminated the meeting. 

The ■■ RiRa Church Gazette " contains the names of over 
thirty Lutheran pastors who have iMen fined, imprisoned 
or dismissed from their posts dariog the last twelve months 
for administering the saciaments, according to tbe 
Lutheran rites, lo people who were of the Orthodox 
Church. The pastors \a their defence state that many 
Orthodoi Russians went over to the Lutheran Church 
and it is with these persons— who are officially Orthodox' 
but in reality Lutherans— thai the present troubles have 
arisen. It may be remarked that every attempt ia heing 
made lo strengthen the Orthodox Church at tie expense 
of the Lutheran in the Baltic provinces. Substantial 
advanlaftts— moilly in the form of grants of land— are 
offered to ilio Lithuanian peasants, who abandon the 
Lutheran faith for the Orthodox. All, however who 
leave the Greek Church are liable V> fipe, jpprisoo'menl 
or transportation. ' 



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Free Russia 

TBZ OaaAH OF TBS vsouss 
••$ocietp of §frtenf>« of 'glusstan §(rcc6om." 

Ra^laterad as a Newsfiapap fop Tpanamlaalon Abroad. 
Vol. 4.— No, 12.] LONDON ako NEW TORE : DECEMBER Isi, 1898. [Om Vmmn. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM 

The Eoglish Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, founded in November, i88g, lias Cor it objects to aid 
to the eirtent of its powers, the Russian patriots who are^ trying to obtain for their country that Political 
Freedom and Self- government which Western nations have enjoyed for generatioaa. 

The Society appeals to the enlightened men and women of all countries, without diatiactloD of nationality 
or political creed, who cannot witness with indifference the horrors perpetrated in the Empire of the Tsars, 
and who wish a better future for the masses of the Russian people. Further coatributions to the funds and 
further work are needed and will be welcome. Membership is acquired by sending to the Treasurer an annual 
subscription of or exceeding Five Shillings. Members are entitled to receive Fru Rusiia post free. 

GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 



Those marked with t 



. *, form the Executive Committee. 



Ftt.Kon.A.H.DyksAaland,M.P. Rsv. Page Hopps. ■Edward R. Pease- 
William Allan, MP. R. A. Hudson. "Q. K. Perris. 
Rev. Charles A. Berry, D.D. *Miaa Mary Margrave. *J. Allsnson Ploton, M.P. 
~ • "I RtHon.J.Q.Shaw-Lefsvre,M.P •Mist Ada Radfonl. 



■Adolphs Smith. 



L M.P. 



Rev. Stopfbrd A. Brooke. 
Psroy W^Buntj_n(^ 



Thomas Burt, M.P. 
•W. P. Bytos, MP. 
Tbs Oounteis of Csrlists. 
Rsv. W. Moore Eds. 
J. E. Ellis, M.P. 
Miss Isabetta 0. Ford. 



R. Maynard Lsonard. 

Thomas Lough, M.P. 

John Maodonald. 
•W. Maoksnzls. 
■Mrs. Charles Mallet. 
•E.J. 0. Morton, MP. 

J. Fletcher Moulton, QA 



Mr& Herbert RIx. 
■Herbert RIx. 

H. Roberts. 

Joshua Rowntree. 

Wm. Saunders, LO.O., M.P. 

Rev. Prof. Shuttleworth, 
'Mrs. Arthur Sidgwioh. 



Professor Stuart, M.. . 
'Herbert M. Thompson- 
*Wrn. Thompson - 

J. 8. Trotter. 
•T. Rshsr Urn 



Henry J. Wilson, 

'Robert Spenoe Watson, LLD., Hon. TYtofurtr, Benabaro Grove, Gateshead. 
'Miss Q. L Mallet, Bon. B»tr*tary, ijx, Cromwell Road, South Kenalagtoa. London, S.W. 



"FREE RUSSIA" Is published on the 1st of every month.— London : Printed and Published by Ward ft Foxlow, 
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FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 

George Kennan's Coming Lecture. — Political 
Revival in Russia and Support Abroad. — News and 
Notes cf the Month.— Good Work in Cardiff.— 
Robbery Again.' — "The Union." — The Russian 
Free Press in London.— High-class Education in 
Russia. — Victims of the Franco- Russian Festivities 
(from our Correspondent at St. Petersburg). — 
Meetings. — Letter-box. — List of Subscribers. 

Lmidon, December 1, 1898. 

George Eennan ia going to visit Old Eoglaod 
after CnriatmaB, to tell tliose who would lilie to 
liear liim what lie has aeen aa an eye-wituess in 
Siberia and what he has learned from official and 
unofficiftt sources about Rtissian misrule, and the 
Kussian struggle for a brighter light and a better 
day. He will be in London in the begiDoiiig of 
January, and kis first lecture here will be on behalf 
of the Sociery of Friends of Russian Freedom. The 
keen interest of the subject will be luteusiGed by 
its treatment. Mr. Kennan will give us his 
personal impressions — the impressions of a man 
standing outside the contending parties. 

The brilliant abilities of the accomplished 
lecturer and his world-wide fame as an author 
will, in thempelves, attract crowds of eager 
listeners, and they will not be disappointed, how- 
ever numerous, for in Toronto Mr. Kennan spoke 
to 4,000 people, in Chicago to (i,OO0, and was 
heard by every individual on account of his 
beautiful deep voice and careful articulation. To 
the Friends of Russian Freedom who bad the 
privilege of meeting Mr. Eennan in June last, at 
the reception given to him by the S.F.B.F., the 
charm of the noble and powerful personality of the 
Siberian explorer will be an additional attraction. 
Those who are anxioas to see and hear welt must 
have early information on the matter. It is the 
pleasant but serious duty of the Friends of 
Russian Freedom to provide this information. 
We expect them to spread the news about the 
coming lecture as widely as possible, and later on 
to sell tickets. Keunau's public statement here 
of what converted him from a sincere friend of 
the Russian "paternal" government into its 
unflinching foe is an event in our movement. 
His influence on Enghsh pubhc opinion has 
already made itself fell. The extent of the 
aucoesB of his lecture depends upon the energy 
with which the F.R.F. set to work to make his 
presence amongst ns known. 

The leature will take place on the Sth of 
January, at 8 p.ni., in Prinoe's Hall, Piooadilly. 
For Information, tioketa, &a., apply to the 
Hon. Secretary, HIbb G. Mallet, 133, Crom- 
well Road, South Kensington, London, S.W. 

The conleLtB of the pri^eent number will prove 
once moTn ihat the pro-Russian movementaiiroad 
\Mih i:i.|iin Id life by a real necessity proci-eding 



from the present political situation of Bueeia, 
and based on a sound baaia. Our St. Petersbai^ 
correspondent shows ua that the trick of the 
Franco-Russian festivities was aimed at internal 
politics as well ae external. The government of 
the Tzar cherished the hope that RussianB, 
bribed or misled, by the attitude of republican 
France, would forget the beat blood of Russia 
Bpilt by the Tzardom ; would forget the misery 
imposed by it on the Rnsdan peasant, and the 
clutches in which it holds the Rasaiaa genius, 
and join the French in their shonta " Long live 
the Tzar!" When the Buseian government 
saw, however, that this was not the case, it tried, 
at least to make things appear as if it were so, 
and thus to strengthen in Europe and America 
the belief in the popularity of the " paternal 
government " at home. These tactics, however, 
will not ans wer, for there are organisations in 
countries, where freedom of the press and freedom 
of speech are among the mightiest factors of life, 
watching eveuta in Russia, and they will not 
suffer truth to be put under (he official cloth. 

The foreign work — in England, America, 
France and elsewhere — on behalf of Russian 
liberty is, however, only a factor in the Ubeiatioa 
movement going on in Russia herself. But 
whatever progress in that line we may notice is 
a great encouragement to us, and so are certainly 
the facta given further on in our article upon the 
BuBsian Free Press here and in Russia. These 
things show that the spirit of independence ia 
slowly but steadily growing in Russia, that people 
who were slumbering are awakening to their 
civic duties, and that the interest in political and 
Booial questions ia becoming keener and keener, 
and this notwithstanding Ihedanger to individuals, 
such interest imphes in the empire of the Tzar. 
This awakening means that soon we shall hear of 
some new victims of official ferocity. The army 
of humanity will have to expose the crimes and 
to come to the aid of the sufferers. We must, 
then, draw up our forces aod strengthen our 
position beforehand. Admirable work has been 
done lately by the Cardiff and Oxford branches 
of our Society, and by single champions like Mrs. 
Mallet, aa wUI be seen in another column. But 
we want all our branches to do such work, and 
all our allies to double their efforts. Friends of 
Russian Freedom ! Organise meetinga and lec- 
tures, support and spread your paper, support 
your General Fund, support your Political Exiles' 
Escape Fund, support jour Stundist Fund! 

&11 oontributiona and aubssriptionB to be 
addressed to the Hon. Treasurer and Presi- 
dent, Dr. R. SPENCE WATSON, Bensham 
GroTe, Gateshead. 

Lectures DELiveaEO by Mrs. C. Mallet. 
Birmingham, October i6th; Sheffield, October 
17th; London (Pioneer Club), October 26th ; North 
Lambeth Liberal Club, October ^gth ; Bedford, 
November 3rd ; West Norwood (Reform Club), 
November sih. 



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December i, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



News & Notes of the Month. 

The antnmn eeBsion of the district zemstvos is 
over. 80 far as the results are bnovD, a verj 
interesting feature is revealed. NotwilhstandiDg 
the latest onrtailing of their powers by the 
government, uotnith standing the faot tbnt tlie 
government has tried to pack them with its own 
representativea, and has encouraged the putting 
oat of light ; nntwitlifitanding the bad position of 
tbeir finances, due to the economical exhaustiou 
of the population, the umslvos have increased 
tbeir budgets for priinnry schools. It is most 
noteworthy that the peasants, so far as they are 
represented in the zemslvos, are invariably support- 
ers of every measure tending to found a new 
sohool, a library, &o., and are doing themselves 
whatever they can in that direction ; for example, 
many of the village conitnunities in the province 
of Orel, a province which snfTered severely from 
famine, have assigned 60 roubles each for 
founding free libraries in connection with the 
zemitvo schools, and 15 roubles each yearly for 
their new acquisitions. The results attained in 
primary education tiirough the efforts of the must 
liberal zemUvoi are astounding, if we take into 
oonaideration alt the difficulties pnt in their way 
by tbe central government and the bureaacraoy. 
In the province of Tver, for example, according 
to the account of the school board read at the last 
eession of the district iimslvo, nearly all the 
peasant boys old enough to attend school {over !)5 
per cent.) and one-third of the girls were attending 
school. The expenses of the Tver district zemstvo 
for primary education amount to ono-fourtb of its 
whole budget. This amount would be far larger 
were not the zemstvos compelled to spend au 
enormous percentage of their income on the 
exigencies of tbe police, quartering the troops, &c. 

Some astounding fig ares about the Bussian 
finances ! We borrow them from official sources : 
It was expected that direct taxes would bring in, 
in 1691, over 140^ million roubles, but in reality 
less than 110^ millioos could be raised ; if to 
these arrears we add that portion of tbe old ones 
that was expected to come in, but in reality did 
not, the tolal sum of arrears for the year 1601 
will amount to 21-6 per cent, of the yearly sum 
of direct taxes imposed. Observe that all these 
arrears showed exclusively tbe economical 
exhaustion of the peasantry (about 85 per cent. 
of tbe whole population), as the landlords both 
in tbe country and in towns have paid all tbe 
direct taxes imposed on them (they are not so 
heavy as those weighing on tbe peasants), and 
even raised a somewhat larger sum than was 
expected. The above-mentioned 21*6 per cent, 
does not represent, however, all the arrears in 
direct taxation. Besides this sum there was a 
far larger one left from preceding years which 
was not expected to be raised iu 1891, but still 
was to be squeezed ont of tbe unfortunate peasant 



at some future time. Adding tbis sum to the 
arrears of 1891, we find Ibat tbe whole sum of 
arrears in direct taxation up to tbe 1st January, 
1692, amounted to 66 per cent, of what was to be 
paid. During the year 1692 those arrears 
increased still more, namely, to 116,H57,2t2 
roubles, which means 82! per cent, of the pro- 
from direct taxation that year 1 



There can be no arrears on the peasants in 
indirect taxation ; that is a matter of coarse. 
But the government of the new Pharaohs of 
Baasia, after having reduced people to starvation 
on a large scale, lend them money or grain- 
Tbis debt of tbe peasantry amounts at present to 
168 million roubles. Now add to the above- 
mentioned aiim the rates paid by the peasaut to 
the zemstvos and to his community — bis tithes, 
bis private debts to tbe usurers of every descrip- 
tion, and the inevitable expenses connected with 
Bending tbe recruits to tbe army — and you will 
get an approximate idea of the financial burden 
weighing on hia unfortunate shoulders (indirect 
taxation excluded). 

And here is an illustration of bow, under tbe 
paternal government of the " Little Father," 
these millions of arrears are to be obtained from 
tbe peasant. Une of our correspondents writes 
from the Oufn province: "From X*, which is 
one of tbe poorest villages in the vicinity of 
Zaihsk, district of Menzelinsk. The villagers 
live exclusively by agriculture, but as for three 
consecutive years tbe crops failed, and this 
misfortune was followed by a new one — the 
cholera — no wonder that they were much in 
arrears and nearly starving. As to tbe peasants' 
starvation, the police do not mind, but the taxes 
must be got at any price. £o a military foroe 
was sent to X, and all tbe villagers unmercifully 
flogged. Tbe order was carried out on such a 
wholesale scale, so brutally, and was at tbe same 
time so utterly useless — for nothing could be got 
ont of Ibe unfortunate people, even by humiliation 
and cruelty — that one of tbe neighbouring land- 
lords. General tirev^, at once, and on hia own 
accord, set ofi" to St. Petersburg to put tbe matter 
before the ministry. Will he be listened to ? 
Hardly. But even if be should be, we may add, 
that we must not forget bow many villages in the 
Empire are treated in tbe same way wliere there 
ia no General Orev^ to go hundreds of miles to 
St. Petersburg in tbeir defence. 

If the reader does not like illustrationa from 
unofficial sources, we will give him one from an 
official one. The Messengfr of Riga informs us 
that one of the departments of the Imperial 
Senate held a sitting recently on an important 

' It was impossible to decipher the name in the 
manuscript ; the locaUty is, however, indicated quite 
sulhciently to make the veriAcation of the fact 
possible. 



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132 



FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1893. 



queation — Who was to flog the peaeanta ? This 
voold not be credited of any other European 
oonntry, but in Imperial Buasia, espeoially now- 
a-days, it ie most natural. The Senate had to 
deoide who was to flog the peasants. Mast it be the 
members of the peasant tribunals themselves, or 
the police ? The honourable function was awarded 
to the pohoe. 

A private message received by ns confirms the 
sad news, which has alr^dy appeared in the 
English press, that abont 80 persons have been 
arrested recently in Warsaw for political reasons. 

Dome time a^o the Badioal paper N(>r<$i2 ("The 
People "^, published in the Oukralnien language 
in Galicia (Austria), but read and suppoi-ted also 
by Oukrarniens within the boundaries of the 
Bnesian empire, made public a secret official 
memorandum of the General of Gendarmes, 
Novitzky, residing in Kiev. This memorandum, 
contained a dennnclation of, and an attack upon, 
the Oukramien patriots, of whom the Nar6d is 
partly a representative. A copy of the issue in 
which the memorandum appeared was sent by 
the editor to General Novitzhy, and now he is 
informed that Novitzky went mad. We quite 
understand that for an ambitious man like 
Novitzky, who is accustomed to revel in hia 
omnipotence and cunning, the idea that among 
those nearest to him there is someone who betrays 
him on behalf of his victims, may be maddening. 
The editor of the Narbd thus concludes his note : 
" We learned the fact with rather mingled feelings. 
Tet if we take into consideration how many more 
hundreds of people that savage mind might have 
mined, we have to thank fate for its having been 
put ont. It would be difficult even for ofGoial 
BuEsia to find another Jack- Ketch for Oukrainien 
patriotism like General Novitzky," 

In the same (21st) number of the Narid we 
find some very interesting details about the 
Onkrainiens, recently arreeted in South Bussia 
(see Fkbe Bubbu, August, 1898, p. 101). Among 
other things they are charged with having con- 
templated the secession of Oukra'ina (South 
Bassia), for the piupose of annexing her to 
Anetria — an utterly fuitaetio charge. They 
cannot, in fact, be charged even with getting 
books prohibited in Russia, as books were sent 
them by a native of Galicia without their know- 
ledge, just to try whether he oould manage to 
introduce into Bussia some specimens of books 
of different and partly opposite tendencies. The 
only tiling they might have been "reasonably" 
charged with is that they did not dsnonnce them- 
selves and one another after they had received 
the books. But in Bnssia it is a sufficient reason 
for an arrest if the authorities expect to wring 
ost of the victim some interesting confessions by 
means of solitary confinement and worry. 



The most powerful of the hving Russian 
novelists of the younger generation, V, G. Koro- 
lenko, is pretty well known throughout the 
English -speaking world, as his "Blind Musician," 
" Sanghalieu Convict," " Uakar's Dream," " In 
Two Moods," and other stories fall of warm 
feeling, mastery of art and wit, have appeared in 
English, on both sides of the Atlantic. Last 
summer the eminent writer visited the Chicago 
World's Fair. On his way home he wanted to 
stop at Odessa, but he was at once visited by the 
police, who told him he must not do so, but pro- 
ceed at once to Nijni-Novgorod, which the police 
chose to consider Eorolenko's acknowledged 
place of residence. 

Some interesting particulars are given us by 
one of our Bt. Petersburg correspondents as to 
the present customs of the Bussian Censorship. 
Some periodicals are persecuted far more than 
others. The monthly Russian Wealth is regarded 
especially as a black sheep, Since it came, about 
two years a-go, under the management of liberal 
editors, it has become necessary for them to 
provide twice as much material every month as 
is actually required for the publication, because 
they know that at least a half of what is sent in 
will be rejected. The way in which the censorship 
is exercised may be gathered from the following 
instances : — A novel of Mme. Bezrodnaya was 
not allowed to appear, the only reason being 
that one of the characters in it, a peasant, is 
represented as having been tried and Unjustly 
committed. Another purely historical article on 
Fei^inand V. of Spain was suppressed, no reason 
being assigned. Did the censor himself wish 
to imply that there was a similarity between 
Ferdinand V. of Spain, the persecutor and bigot, 
and Alexander III., the father of all the Bussians ? 

Yet the action of the Censorship in regard to 
" Bnssian Wealth " has not met with the 
approval of at least one member of the " Central 
Board of the Press." This member, one Pozniak, 
was lately appointed on the strength of his 
reactionary writings, and has proved his fervour 
by reproaching the Censor of " Bussian Wealth " 
forh" ■" 



But the censorship no longer confines its 
powers lo suppressing what It does not approve 
of, lately an innovation has been introduced by 
the " Ministry of the Hoasehold," and the editor 
of a recent encyclopsedia, Professor Andreevsky 
(now deceased), was forced by it to introduce, 
under the letter A, an article on Alexander III., 
the production of a " Uterary " official, containing 
views on theXzar's character remote from his own. 

Intelligence has reached ub that the existence 
of the " Society of Friends of Bussian Freedom " ia 
well known in the Baltic provinces, and that the 
Bussian police keeps an eye on its movemeats* 



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December i, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



We expect this loteUigence to encourage our 
Mends to freah exertions, at the eame time 
warning them to keep an eye on the polioe. 

The irell-known Amerioan Dr. Salter, who has 
been Jeotnring to the London Ethical Society, hae 
jQst left England. It will be remembered by our 
readers that he was one of the foremost to protest 
against the Extradition Treaty, which has now 
become law. We learu from him that the 
Americans who regard that Treaty ae a blot on 
their national honour are preparioK to make a 
&eeh ornsade against it. At the eame time news 
reaches as from Mr. Qoldenberg, onr Bussian 
correspondent in America, that the Russians in 
America are preparing for the same oonSiot. 
These preparations show us that neither the 
Americane themselves nor the BuBsians in 
America are hopeless as to the abrogation of the 
Treaty. 

Our Oxford Branch is doing admirable work. 
The number of members now exceeds 50. It was 
decided at a committee meeting of the branch to 
issue a new and revised edition of the pamphlet 
" The Slaughter of Political Frisooers in YalcouCsk." 
This edition will contain new and interesting facts, a 
carefully drawn up plan of the house in which this 
crime was perpetrated, and a letter, never before 

Eublished, from Hausman, one of the victims, to his 
ttle daughter. In doing this the Oxford Branch 
has met an urgent need. This pamphlet has long 
been out of print, and it is the one which is most 
constantly asked for. The Oxford Branch is further 
engaged m preparations for a concert, to be held in 
memoiy of the famous Russian composer, P. I. 
Tchaytovsky, just deceased. 



Good Work in Cardiff. 

The Cardiff branch of Ihe S.F.R.F. is only a aewly- 
bora babe, yet It has already over 40 members and its 
first steps promise ileady itrowth and useful activiiy. 
This Is not surprisieg if we take into consideration that 
its Hon. Sec. and Treasurer is Mr H, M. Thompson and 
its Chairman Iha Rev. Canon Thompsoa. D.D. The 
°"''"°' subscription 10 the branch is fixed at 2s. 6d.: 10 
both the branch and Ihe parent society, 7s. 6d. Up till 
now the money received, all told, is atxiut £\^, including 
f^i lubscribed " for the Stundists." 

The objects of the branch are : " To promote knowledge 
of the political and social condition of the Russian 
people ; to aid and encourage by every legiijmaie means 
those who are struggling to obtain pofilicaJ and religious 
freedom for Russia; carefully to watch the inter- 
national telaiions between England and Russia, 
so as to guard against the possibility of any such 
calamitously false step as the recently concluded 
extradition treaty between the United Stales and 
Russia (in consequence of which many of the Russian 
poUtlcaJ refugees in the United States are no longer 
secure}," And the privileges of a member, as stated on 
bis ticket, are as follows: "Free attendance at all 
lectures and meetings promoted by ihe Cardiff branch ; 
advice concerning the literature ol the subject, and access 
to many of the important t>ooks : monthly receipt of the 
publication called Frbb Russia; iH/priHfi|Ni/f>, becoming 
a helper of ihe cause of freedom in that part al the world 
in which it is most abused." It is a happy feature of the 
Cardiff branch that at every branch meeting a paper, 



especially written for the purpose, on some Russian sub- 

At a meeting of the branch, held on October 36, officers 
and commiiiee were appointed. It was agreed to invite 
Mrs. Mallet to deliver a lecture, and also to raise a 
guarantee fund so as to secure a lecture from Mr. George 
Kennan in three or four months' time. Mr. Rees Jones 
hiodly said that he and his friends would be responsible 
for ^10 of such guarantee. The Secraiary made a state- 
ment concerning the books and other literature available 
for memliers of the Society. An account of the StundisI 
sect was read. Later on Mrs. Mallet's lecture was fixed 
for December 7, and Mr. G. Kennaa's for February iS. 



Robbery Again ? 

The Scotch reporters have already rendered 
good service in unveiUng some of the doings which 
the Russian official world tries to keep in the dark. 
We mean the tracking of the Russian steamer 
built on the Clyde for the transportation, in cages, 
of convicts (political ones among others) to the 
Sagbalien Island. Now we want from them, or from 
some Friend of Russian Freedom a new service. 
A Russian steamship of the so-called Volunteer Fleet, 
of the naine of Tamb6v, is, at the present moment, 
lying in some Scotch harbour " for repairs." 
There is something decidedly mysterious about those 
" repairs," and, therefore, we should hke to find 
out, not only that harbour, but also the truth. The 
mystery is this:~When starting from Russia many 
months ago, Tambov was inspected by the engineer 
of the Volunteer Fleet and declared seaworthy. 
When the steamer arrived at this island a telegram 
was received from the Russian Ministry of Marine 
declaring the ship unseaworthy and ordering it to 
stop in England. All Ihe passengers were to be 
transmitted to an English steamer, which meant that 
a round sum of money was to be paid by the Volunteer 
Fleet administration. Then an English engineer 
inspectedTambovand . . . proclaimed her seaworthy 
(without any repairing being yet done) ! Notwith- 
standing that decision, however, a new order from 
the miniBtr}> came, namely : The steamer must wait 
for the arrival of an official engineer, sent by the 
ministry. . . . 

Now, the reader will say that after the horrible 
fate of the ironclad Rouisalka (" The Mermaid"), we 
can only be glad to see bow much caution the 
Russian Ministry of Marine displays when human 
life is at stake. Our Russian correspondent is, 
however, of a different opinion and gives two very 
different reasons for the actions of the ministry. He 
thinks that both the engineers, who declared Tambov 
seaworthy, were right, but that, on the one hand, 
the expenses for the " repairs " were to be defrayed 
by the government which might prove as profitable, 
as the *' repairing " of the Roussalka," while on the 
other the Volunteer Fleet is a dangerous rival to the 
Russian Steamship and Trading Company in which 
the present minister. Admiral Chihacbov and some 
other prominent persons are large shareholders. 
Admiral Chibachov was for many years managing 
director of that company, before he was called to the 
ministry. 

Will anyone in this countiy, who knows anything 
about the inspection of the Tambov and the trans- 
mission of her passengers, undertake to enlighten us? 



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134 



FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1893. 



" The Lnion." 

A very iuteteBtiDK specimen of olandestiue 
literature, not only ciroaUted ^xAt^ea prodwxd iu 
Bnssia, is Jying before ns, the Maroh No. of the 
periodical " The Union " (So(i«) for the present 
;ear. It is evidently the prodaotioo of some 
very young people who sre short of means. The 
copy before ns is only a hectograpfaed one nf 
hi^f foolscap size, coutuiniDg 41 pages. In iid 
" Letterbox" we find the ooDfesaion that the 
secret society issuing it has got neither a safRoienC 
qnantity of type nor money for voluminous pnbli- 
cations. Bat as we know very well that the 
whole Busgian revolutionary movement of the 
last 20-2S years began in the same apparently 
poor way, this does not discourage us. On the 
contrary, the contents of the publioation show 
some featnres that are very promising. Besides 
the usual contents of such periodicals — a list of 
the arrested, exiled, imprisoned, &c. ; chronicles 
of events of the kind that are not permitted to 
appear in the ordinary press, revolutionary songs, 
satirical poems, leaders on " What to begin 
with," and so on — there are articles which show 
a tendency of special value, articles whose object 
is to unite the different groups of advanced 
Uuseians — the social- democrats, the partieans 
of the " Will of the people," the Nar6dniki 

i literally the democrats) and others — into oue 
urge revolutiouEuy union. The periodical pro- 
poses to convene clandestine conferences of 
representatives of different secret oiroles and 
sooieties, and thus to pave the way for a pau- 
Bussian secret congress of representatives of 
revolutionary organisations, at which a common 
platform may be adopted and a common plan of 
action worked out. Another encouraging point 
is the fact shown by " The Union " that not- 
withstanding all the means used by the Buseian 
government in order to alienate those working 
for the Russian liberation outside Bussia 
from those working ioside, they do not, as a 
matter of fact, lose eight of one another, and 
manage to help each other. The group repre- 
sented by " The Union " does not confine its 
propaganda to the publioation of that periodical, 
bnt issues also separate pamphlets and books. 
Among the pamphlets we find " The Yakoutsk 
Blaughtet, a translation from the English periodi- 
cal Fkbb Bussia." We find also in an early No, 
of " The Union " a list of rscent Bussian 
publications produced abroad. Now, if we take 
into oonsideratiou that neither memb^s of Fbbe 
Bussu noF any member of the Bussiaa Free 
Press Fund have any direct communication with 
"The Union" people, nor are they known to 
each other at all, it oecomes evident that what- 
ever is printed abroad on behalf of the Bassian 
liberation movement finds its way where it ought 
to go, even by channels unknown to both sides. 

Let as work, then on our side with renewed 
energy ; they will work on theirs. 



TTie Russian Free Press in 
London. 

At midsummer, 1892, five Russian refugees, of 
whom four were residing in London and the fifth 
in Paris, established in the English capital a little 
Russian printing office, and a book store for 
circulating publications prohibited in Russia. The 
iniititution was founded in the most modest way 
possible, by means of a few pounds entrusted for 
the purpose to the before-mentioned five refugees, 
by some lovers of freedom residing in Russia, and 
this fund was called " The Fund of the Russian 
Free Press." The 1st of July, 1892, must be 
considered its official birthday. There is no need 
to e.xplain to the English or American reader the 
power of and necessity for a free press, but a 
word must be said about the means by which its 
productions have to reach the Russian reader, 
hungry and thirsty for truth and enlightenment, 
notwithstanding the official Arguses and the dra- 
conian laws that try to keep him as far from these 
things as possible- 
There are two different ways of getting at that 
reader. One, which we will call the natural one, 
is by working independentlyof any organisation or 
designed plan ; the other is by working through 
special channels, which have to be elaborately 
arranged at great risk to those who nobly take 
upon themselves to smuggle the literature in, for 
the sake of propaganda. 

The efficiency of the first way is founded on the 
fact that there are plenty of Russians throughout 
the world who have not broken up their inter- 
course with their native land. Some of them 
are living abroad temporarily for business pur- 
poses ; thousands driven out of their country 
by official tyranny, are to be found as settlers 
in Europe, America, Asia, Australia and Africa. 
Some of them still keep up correspondence teith 
their friends and relatives in Russia, by means 
unknown to the Fund of the Russian Free Press, 
and having been emancipated by the new political 
life in which they now share, they cannot help 
communicating every now and then with their 
near and dear ones something of what reaches 
them of the proscribed stock. In addition to the 
Russians settled abroad more or less permanently 
there is a large body of them who only visit the 
wide, wide world, outside the pale of censorship. 
Official statistics tell us that not less than 60,000 
so-called " foreign passports," ».«., permits to 
Russian subjects to leave the country, are issued 
yearly by the Russian administration. Supposing 
that only half of that number come across the 
independent Russian litererature abroad, we have 
30,000 persons who are taking home yearly a 
portion of its contents, to be discussed there, 
either amicably or inimically, but in any case 
they are spread. As a matter of fact, the over- 
whelming majority of those readers are more or 
less friendly to the ideas circulated by the inde- 



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December i, 1893. 



FREE RUSSIA. 



•35 



. pendent Russian literature. It is true they hardly 
ever venture to take them over the frontier 
in the form of printed leaves, but they smuggle 
them in as well in their brains, where, fortunately, 
no search can be made by the most cunnings of 
his Imperial Majesty's paid scoundrels. 

Everyone understands that neither the routes nor 
the means by which the clandestine literature is 
smugg:led into Russia throug-h the so-called " under- 
ground railway " can be made public. Suffice it to 
say, that the Fund of the Russian Free Press has 
a special sum of money, which has been until now 
sufficient to maintain the " railway " in working 
order, andthoug-hat times damaged seriously and 
blocked in certain directions, it has never for long 
ceased working altogetker. We are sorry to say 
that there have • een already three victims of the 
Tzar's inquisition among men who generously and 
courageously worked for the Fund of the Russian 
Free Press as smugglers on the " underground," 
One of these was enabled to escape the clutches 
of the police by means of some money collected 
for the purpose at Dr. S. Watson's house some 
time ago. 

Now that the main thing is explained, the reader 
will understand better the significance of the 
following numbers : — 
During the first i8 months of its 

existence the F. R. F. P. sold 

of its own and other people's 

publications prohibited in Russia 12,776 copies 
and gave away free of chaise 291 „ 

Total ... 13,067 copies 
Which makes a yearly average of 8,711 copies. 
Now during only six months of the present year 
the number of copies put in circulation was 9410, 
which makes the yearly average more than 
double. This is a good testimony of the revival 
of the spirit of independence in Russia, which 
becomes still more significant if we add that just 
during the last few months the undet^ound impor- 
tation of clandestine literature into Russia has 
steadily developed, being called into life by the 
increased demand from Russia. 

The publishing department of the Russian Free 
Press Fund is aUo steadily developing its activity. 
It began with very small pamphlets and now 
issues compact volumes. The seven publications 
issued up to the present touch upon the present 
political situation of Russia (" WTial is to be 
done ? " by Scepniak), the question of ag^tadon 
abroad (by the same), the Jewish question (" A 
Jew to Jews," by Khassin). A good deal of 
material, too, is given for the better understanding 
of the Russian liberation movement (" The Bio- 
graphy of P. Dombrovsky ; " "A Queer Girl," 
by V. Korotenko ; " Underground Russia," by 
Stepniak ; and " The Constitution of Count Loris- 
Melikov "). Strange to say, " Underground 
Russia," originally written in Italian and trans- 
lated into nearly every European lauguage, was 
never before printed in Russian, and is now for 



the first time revised and remodelled by the 
author for the use of his countrymen. As to the 
" Constitution," it created quite a sensation, as it 
revealed documents which showed how exag- 
gerated the hopes were, and how inaccurate the 
knowledge of facts concerning the so-called period 
of dictatorship of Loris-Melikov at the end of the 
last reign. An extensive work by the eminent 
Russian writer and stalwart tighter for truth and 
justice, B. B. Bervi, is now in the press, and is to 
appear shortly. It is a critical history of modem 
European civilisation, beginning with the 13th 
century. A similar survey of the ancient civilisation, 
of which the present work forms the continuation, 
was published by the author in Russia over 20 
years ago. The Russian censorship having stood 
in the way of the rest being published, the new 
tract was to be printed here. It forms, however, 
a complete work in itself. 

In the meantime, material of 3 transitory 
but momentary keen interest is sent in from 
Russia, it becomes evident that the R.F.P.F. must 
take some steps to meet the ripening demand 
in Russia for having news and notes of the 
moment spread by means of print. This demand 
seems to be the most burning exigency of the 
moment, and let us hope the answer to it will soon 
assume some definite and practical shape. 



Htgk 



-class Education in 
Russia. 

Near St. Petersburg there Is a high-class board- 
ing school for girb, called " Smolny," where 500 
daughters of the nobility receive their mental food. 
The appointment of the Principal rests with the 
Empress herself, and the lady who has lately been 
appointed has not failed in her appreciation of the 
institution of which she has been made head. 

The enthusiasm of the girls for their school and 
their devotion to their head found a natural vent 
in a poem, the first line of which ran : 

" Here we find a peaceful home." 

This apparently harmless poem was suppressed by 
the Principal of the " Smolny," on the ^ound that 
it was derogatory to the institution of which she was 
the head to be compared to " a home." 



Victims of the Franco- 
Russian Festivities. 

(Prom our St. Petersburg Corresponoeht.) 

For a long time the Russian government has tried 

to obtain bom Europe and America the sanction of 

public opinion, for the avstem which at home has 

to rest on the sanction of bayonets. 

This time the hopes of the government were far 
higher than ever. It hoped that (he younger 
generation and the public generally, being bri^d 
and carried away by the sympathy of Republican 
France, would forget the past, and joiu in the cry 
" Vive le Tiar ! " 
It was certainl> very diEBcult to get an outburst of 



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136 



FREE RUSSIA. 



December i, 1893. 



unrestraEned enthusiasm, from a body of people 
(rained for geaeratiooH to regard every such outburst 
as punishable with imprisoameDt or exile. But the 
government fouod means oi getting out of the 
diffieultj'. The enthusiasm was partly ordered, 
partly forged. 

An enthusiastic telegram in the name of the 
undergraduates of the Technological Institute was 
sent without the undergraduates knowing anything 
about it. The authorities went so far as to place a 
notice on the wail, saying that the telegram had been 
sent "by order." The same trick was played on the 
Mining Institute. 

But in the University of St. Petersburg, the 
head applied to six undergraduateB, asking them 
to send and sign an enthusiastic telegram to the 
students in Paris, io bis name and the names of " the 
undergraduates," and with the inevitable " God 
save the T^ar " at the end ; endeavouring thus to 
give the impression that the telegram, in reality sent 
by only six undergraduates, was representative of 
the whole body. 

The undergraduates got wind oi this, and a 
disturbance arose. They were anxiouB to stick to 
their only political right, the right of being silent. 
A meeting was held, and while the minority was in 
favour of sending a new telegram the majority was 
against sending any. No lectures were given for the 
whole day. 

The opposition went to the head of the University ; 
he assured them on bis honour that according to 
t^eir wishes no telegram would be sent. 

Next day the undergraduales learned that they 
were cheated. Once more there were disturbed 
meetings, speeches and clamour. The head of the 
Universitv appeared, and thia time played the still 
more disnonourable part of a spy. Under the 
pretext that he did not know that the majority was 
against the telegram (which by the way hadbeen 
ureadv sent), he suggested to the opposition that 
they should sign their names. Everyone knows in 
Russia, that to do this is to risk one's whole career. 
Nevertheless, 60 of the young men ran this risk and 
gave their signatures. 

Rumour says that one of these young men is 



Meetings. 

The Executive Committee met as usual on the 
first Wednesday in November, by kind invitation of 
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Rix. at Burlinglon House. 
Present : Mr. Fisher Unwin, Miss Hargrave, Mrs. 
Chas. Mallett, Mrs. Voynich, Messrs. Byles, Perris, 
Rix, Adolph Smith, H.Tbompson.W. Thompson and 
S. Stepniak. Letters of regret for absence were read 
from Dr. Spence Watson and Mr. Mackenzie. Mr. 
Hobhouse.ofMerton College, Oxford,wrote to propose 
Mrs. Arthur Sidgwick as a member of the Executive, in 
his place \ and Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Radford 
wereelected to the Executive Committee. Itwasalso 
resolved to invite Mr. C. Algernon Swinburne to join 
the General Committee. The Committee assented 
to the retirement of Mr. Stepniak from the editorship 
of Free Russia, Cor the space of fonr months on 
account of pressure of work, and also to the reugna- 
tioD of Mrs. Voynich, to whom a vote o£ thanks was 
accorded for her valuable services as sub-editor. 
Mr, Volkbovsky and Miss Ada Radford were asked to 
take their places for the time being. The Committee 
received with much pleasure the announcement of 
the formation, by Mr. Herbert Thompson, of a Cardiff 
branch of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. 



We have received a most interesting book — "The 
Stundists : the Story of a Great ReUgious Revolt " 
(lames Clarke & Co., 13 and 14, Fleet -street), which 
we would recommend to all interested in the subject. 
For lack of space we reserve a more detailed notice 
until next month. 



Letter Box. 



BoRHAN (Russia). — Thanks for materials, both in 
MSS. and in print. Please send more. Use the 
same address. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF RUSSIAN FREEDOM. 
Farther List of SubBorlptlunB of 2b. 6d. and apwarda.— f/x ckroMological order.) 

/ s. d. / a. d. / ■. 

E. W. Brightmi 



, Mrs, Lyell, London 
Per Mr. H. M. Thompson: 
Mrs Henley. Lland^tf... 

E, S, Tregellis, Penarth 

Donation (collected by 

Miss E. M, Richards) 

Miss Mary Church 

A, J. Lusty, Cardiff ... 

Mrs. Brock, Montreux .. 

Miss H, C. Barter, London 

W. Liltloboy, Birmingham 



Mrs. A, Splcer, St. Mary 

Cray 

J. H. Buckley, Leicester... 
Captain I.owe9, London ... 
M. Bouchards, London ... 
R. A. Hudson, London .... 
Miss A. Liltleboy, London 
S. T, Mander, Wolver- 

P. Marshall, West Brighton ■ 
A. Goff, Norwood 



, Sheer- 
Mrs. Clunle, t^ambridge ... 

Miss P. Margets n, tendon 
A. M. Wilkinson, York ... 
1. Gimson, Leicester 
Mrs. Bucklon, LondoD ... 

Miss Bidlake 

Mrs. Boole, t^ondon 

S. V. Clothier, Somerset... 

E. Harvey, Walerford ... 



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